engineer spring 2014 old
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Boston University College of Engineering Alumni MagazineTRANSCRIPT
SPRING 2014SPRING 2014 INSIDEEPIC LAUNCH
LED MEETS GPS
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MORE INSIDE
IN THE LAST 50 YEARS HOW HAVE WE
CHANGED YOUR WORLD?
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2 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
Transforming Engineering Education for a New Era of Product InnovationBY DEAN KENNETH R. LUTCHEN
T his year, the College of
Engineering marks its
50th anniversary, having
been created as a small
undergraduate engineering col-
lege in 1964. In 1992 we expanded,
adding graduate PhD programs
in every discipline. I’ve had a front
row seat for the past 30 years,
having joined the faculty when we
were focused on quality under-
graduate education. I watched
as we complemented that with
world-class research and graduate
programs aimed at addressing
society’s problems and improving
our quality of life. Indeed, after only
22 years, our graduate research
programs attract over $70 million
per year in extramural research
and are ranked among the top 40
of all US engineering schools.
In January 2014, we came
full circle when we opened an
extraordinary facility that invokes
our undergraduate roots. The
Engineering Product Innovation
Center—EPIC—promises to trans-
form undergraduate engineering
education and prepare students for
a changing design and manufac-
turing landscape.
Just a few years ago—while
we were discussing updating
our undergraduate laboratory
facilities—new technologies began
to emerge that would radically
advance the innovation and manu-
facturing of products in a way that
could greatly advance the economy
of the United States and the world.
The extraordinary capabilities of
this new hardware and software
ranged from computer-aided
design, 3D printing and so-called
additive manufacturing, to the
use of lasers for product fabrica-
tion and assessment, and even to
supply chain management and
product recycling for sustainability.
In short, product innovation and
manufacturing now requires the
integration of multiple engineering
disciplines, as well as other fi elds
such as business. Since the College
had already been reorganized
to lower the barriers to interdis-
ciplinary education, and since
we had already committed to
creating Societal Engineers ready
to impact our quality of life, we saw
an extraordinary opportunity to
train our students for the advanced
manufacturing environment.
The idea for EPIC was born.
Through EPIC, we can trans-
form our engineering curriculum
so that all of our students will learn
the entire innovation-to-product-
deployment process. They will
put their ideas through the design
process and understand how
products need to be manufactured
economically in order to be viable
in the marketplace and add value to
society. Our students will graduate
not only with a solid foundation
in their chosen major, but also an
understanding of other disciplines
and of the modern manufacturing
process.
We are already piloting a
sophomore course, Introduction
to Engineering Design, which is
centered in EPIC and gives student
teams of blended majors a basic
understanding of how products
are developed from concept to
design to manufacturing to market
deployment.
I believe EPIC adds unique
value to the engineering degree
and makes our students highly
attractive to employers. Many
of those employers agree. Since
the early planning stages, we
have reached out and engaged
industry with EPIC, and companies
have responded enthusiastically.
Several have not only made sig-
nifi cant fi nancial commitments to
EPIC, but have agreed to serve on
the EPIC Industrial Advisory Board
to help us ensure that our gradu-
ates have the skills the modern
workplace demands.
In many ways, EPIC epito-
mizes 50 years of excellence.
Its highly visible location on
Commonwealth Avenue—the
College’s fi rst address on the
University’s main thorough-
fare—helps brand us as a major
amplifi er of excellence for the
whole institution. Moreover, I see
EPIC being used not just across
engineering disciplines, but by
a wider swath of the University
community. Already students
from the College of Fine Arts and
the School of Management have
inquired about access, and we
embrace their interest in design.
As we look forward to the
College’s 50th anniversary
celebration in a few months, EPIC
is a shining example of how engi-
neering adds value to society.
MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
Join fellow alumni, current students and your
favorite professors for a day of celebration and
activities marking the College of Engineering’s
50th anniversary!
• Alumni Lunch Panel and Networking: Alumni Successes & Lessons Learned
• Relive Your Favorite Courses with Your Favorite Professors• Tour the College’s Newest Labs and Facilities• Student-Alumni Team Design Challenge• Faculty Panel: Engineering and the World—Using
Technology to Advance Society
PLUS
• All-day Refreshments, Demos and Swag on theNew Cummington Mall
• Celebration Dinner at Hotel Commonwealth More details to be announced at bu.edu/eng/50th
C E L E B R A T I N G 5 0 Y E A R S
September 19, 2014
of Moving Society Forward
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CONTENTS • SPRING 2014
3 | inENG 30 | Faculty News 34 | Alumni News
EPIC Opening New Facility Enables Design
Through Manufacturing
Novel Ideas The Storied Career of ENG’s
First Valedictorian
LED Meets GPSENG Alum Advances Indoor
Location Technology
3
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< ENG
INNOVATION IN SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN TOP 10 30
>MAJOR GIFTS BOLSTER ENG
FACULTY
5
ENG: 50 YEARS OF CHANGE & INNOVATION
10
1969
2010
1983
2003
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John E. AbeleFounder & Director, Boston Scientifi c
Gregg Adkin ’86Vice President, EMC Ventures
Adel Al-Saleh ’87Group Chief Executive, Northgate Information Solutions
Alan Auerbach ’91CEO, President and Chairman, Puma Biotechnology, Inc.
Adam Crescenzi ’64Founding Partner/Owner, TELOS Partners
Roger A. Dorf ’70Former Vice President, Wireless Group, Cisco Systems
Ronald G. Garriques ’86CEO and Chairman, Gee Holdings LLC
Joseph Healey ’88Senior Managing Director, HealthCor Management LP
Jon K. HirschtickFounder & Board Member, Solid Works Corporation
William I. HuyettDirector, McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Amit Jain ’85, ’88President and CEO, Prysm Inc.
Dean L. Kamen, Hon.’06President & Founder, DEKA Research & Development
Peter LevineGeneral Partner, Andreesen Horowitz
Nick Lippis ’84, ’89President, Lippis Enterprises
Venkatesh NarayanamurtiBenjamin Peirce Professor of Technology & Public Policy; Former Dean, School of Eng. & Appl. Sciences, Harvard University
Girish NavaniCEO, eClinicalWorks
Stephen N. Oesterle, MDSenior Vice President—Medicine & Technology, Medtronic, Inc.
Anton Papp ’90Vice President, Corporate Development, Teradata Inc.
Richard D. Reidy, SMG’82President and CEO, Progress Software Corp.
Binoy K. Singh ’89Associate Chief of Cardiology, Lenox Hill Hospital, North Shore LIJ
John Tegan ’88President and CEO, Communication Technology Services
Engineering Leadership Advisory Board
Bettina Briz Himes ’86Principal, ValuQuest International
Christopher Brousseau ’91Global Commercial Director, Accenture Inc.—Spend Management Services
Gregory Cordrey ’88Partner, Jeff er Mangles Butler & Mitchell, LLP
Gregory Courand ’79President, Founder and Chief Methodologist, Synergia LLC
Mark Deem ’88Partner, The Foundry Inc.
Richard Fuller ’88Associate Business Development Director, Broadcom Corp.
Timothy Gardner ’00Director, Research Programs & Operations, Amyris Biotechnologies
Roger Hajjar ’88Chief Technical Offi cer, Prysm Inc.
Kent Hughes ’79Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff , Verizon Wireless
Michele Iacovone ’89, CGS ’86Vice President, Chief Architect, Intuit Inc.
Martin Lynch ’82Vice President, Operations, Overland Storage
Daniel Maneval ’82Vice President, Pharmacology & Safety Assessment, Halozyme Therapeutics
Rao Mulpuri ’92, ’96Chief Executive Offi cer, Soladigm, Inc.
Sandip Patidar ’90Managing Partner, Titanium Capital Partners
Sanjay Prasad ’86, ’87Head of Acquisitions & Strategy, Software and Communications Business Unit, Intellectual Ventures
Sharad Rastogi ’91Vice President, Strategy and Marketing,Cisco Systems
George Savage ’81Co-Founder and Chief Medical Offi cer,Proteus Biomedical
Gregory Seiden ’80Vice President, Applications Integration, Oracle Systems
Dylan Steeg ’95Director and Kauff man Fellow, Intel Capital
Francis Tiernan ’70President, Anritsu Company
Joseph Winograd ’95, ’97Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Offi cer and Co-Founder, Verance Corp
Jamshaud Zovein ’95, GSM ’99Managing Director, Nuveen Investments
Ex-offi cio, from Dean’s Advisory Board:Amit Jain, President, CEO, Prysm Inc.
Anton Papp, Vice President, Corporate Development, Teradata Inc.
ENG West Coast Alumni Leadership Council
www.facebook.com/BUCollegeofENG
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Stay Connected to the College of Engineering
Join the ENG online community! Post, tag, tweet, ask questions, reconnect with alumni, and learn about networking opportunities, job fairs, seminars and other news and events.
Kenneth R. Lutchendean
Solomon R. Eisenberg senior associate dean for academic programs
David Bishopassociate dean for research & graduate programs AD INTERIM
Thomas D. C. Littleassociate dean for educational initiatives
Richard Lallyassociate dean for administration
Gretchen Fougereassociate dean for outreach & diversity
Bruce Jordanassistant dean for development & alumni relations
ENGineer is produced for the alumni and friends of the Boston University College of Engineering.
Please direct any questions or comments to Michael Seele, Boston University College of Engineering, 44 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215.Phone: 617-353-2800Email: [email protected]: www.bu.edu/eng
Michael Seele editor
Mark Dwortzan managing editor
Kathrin Havrilla staff writer
contributorsRich Barlow, BU Global Programs, Rachel Harrington, Cheryl Stewart
design & productionBoston University Creative Services
photographyCollege of Engineering, except where indicated
0414
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WRITTEN + EDITED BY MARK DWORTZAN
W ith the fl ip of a rather large switch, the Engineering Product Innovation
Center (EPIC)—a 15,000-square-foot, $9 million facility that will enable
students to develop the knowledge and skills that will be needed in tomor-
row’s manufacturing enterprises—opened with a ceremony, reception and
guided tours on January 23.
The event drew a packed audience consisting of Boston University leaders; ENG alumni,
faculty and students; state and local government offi cials; and corporate partners, including
representatives from principal industry sponsors GE Aviation, Procter & Gamble, PTC and
Schlumberger. Several gathered around and pulled a large purpose-built switch that turned
on many of the machines in the center and activated their start-up lights and sounds.
Featuring $18.8 million in state-of-art design software donated by PTC, as well as
advanced machining tools, laser processing equipment, rapid 3-D printers and intelligent
robotics, EPIC will give students the opportunity to learn how to create innovative new prod-
ucts in an integrated, holistic way encompassing design, prototyping, fabrication,
Engineering Product Innovation Center OpensNEW FACILITY TO EQUIP STUDENTS WITH DESIGN-THROUGH-MANUFACTURING EXPERTISE
BME SOFTWARE HELPS HS
JUNIOR WIN GOOGLE PRIZE
9
A NEW WRINKLE IN
WATER-PROOFING
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The Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) will train BU engineers “for the future manufacturing economy in this country,” said EPIC Director Gerry Fine.
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manufacturing and lifecycle manage-
ment. The glass-fronted facility, housed in
the former Guitar Center building at 750
Commonwealth Avenue, includes a fl ex-
ible, computer-aided design (CAD) studio,
demonstration areas, laboratories and a
machining and fabrication center, all in a
reconfi gurable layout that will easily adapt
to future technologies and needs.
EPIC will serve as a resource to signifi cantly
increase the amount of design work in the
undergraduate curriculum through stand-alone
courses, enhancements to existing courses and
opportunities to collaborate with fellow stu-
dents, faculty and global leaders in innovation
and manufacturing.
“EPIC has a vision of transforming engi-
neering education nationally, so that every
engineer, regardless of major, learns the
process and excitement of going from design to
computer-aided design to prototype to mass-
producing something that could be a product
to impact society and add economic value,”
said Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen in his opening
remarks at the event. “We want this to be a hub
of design and innovation.”
Noting the critical role that manufacturing
plays in today’s economy, BU President
Robert A. Brown envisioned EPIC as an
important element in reinvigorating manu-
facturing in the US and empowering ENG
students to lead the way.
“Today, more than ever, competitive
product development is about the entire
integration of product creation, design and
manufacturing,” said Brown. “Engineers who
can do those things will be highly valued in
the marketplace going forward. EPIC is about
giving all our engineering students experi-
ences to prepare them for this challenge.”
Jim Heppleman, CEO of PTC, underscored
EPIC’s potential to equip ENG students with
the practical knowledge and skills necessary
to meet that challenge by providing them with
a “real-world environment to solve real-world
challenges using real-world tools.”
EPIC was funded through the University,
ENG alumni and friends, and industrial part-
ners. EPIC’s Industrial Advisory Board (IAB)
members, all representatives of the facility’s
principal industry sponsors, will off er ongoing
suggestions on ways to develop the ENG
undergraduate curriculum to better refl ect the
evolving needs of US industry.
Timothy Jackman (ENG’15) with one of EPIC’s 3-D printers, which he used to create a miniature car from a digital model.
With the flip of a switch, the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) opened with a ceremony, reception and guided tours on January 23.
In late September, a conference hosted
by the Division of Materials Science &
Engineering brought 60 of the world’s
leading materials scientists to the BU
campus to discuss the future of the rapidly
emerging fi eld.
“Digital Design of Materials: The Way
Forward for Materials Science?” included
presentations and discussions on solid-state
chemistry in materials design and discovery,
the search for materials such as superconduc-
tors, recent theoretical work underlying digital
materials design, specifi c materials design
techniques, and novel materials and their
potential impact. Presentations focused on
how advanced materials can be designed in
silico, or via computer simulation.
“We were delighted that all the speakers took
very seriously the need to reach out across the
diff erent disciplines, presenting the key ideas in
their fi elds in ways that led to robust discussions
and interactions. We are very hopeful that this
meeting will help nucleate an ongoing dialogue
on the prospects of designing materials in silico,”
said Physics Professor David Campbell, the
former ENG dean and chair of the conference
organizing committee.
Researchers are moving beyond the
explanation of complex materials’ properties
and toward the prediction of how new materials
will behave, a much harder task. Harnessing the
power of advanced computational capabilities
to develop novel devices and technologies in
silico will be key to their success. While
computers have not yet reached the level
required for this work, conference participants
discussed the extent to which new materials’
properties can be predicted using existing
advanced computational tools combined with
researchers’ experience.
Conference sponsors included Boston
University, the Division of Materials Science &
Engineering, the Institute for Complex Adaptive
Matter and the National Science Foundation.
— Cheryl Stewart
Workshop Draws 60 of World’s Leading Materials Scientists
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Four Generous Gifts Bolster ENG FacultyThree College of Engineering alumni and a
professor emeritus have committed large gifts
to continue building the strength of the faculty.
Presented by longtime friends and leaders of the
College, these four gifts are expected to greatly
benefi t research and teaching programs by sup-
porting the recruitment, retention and develop-
ment of exceptional faculty.
David E. Hollowell (ENG’69, ‘72, GSM’74)
and Professor Emeritus Charles Cantor (BME,
MED) have committed planned gifts that will
establish professorships in their names. Peter
Levine (ENG’83) and Roger Dorf (MS, MFG’70)
have made major gifts that will establish a career
development professorship fund and a distin-
guished faculty fellow award, respectively.
“The College’s future will depend on the
strength of its faculty and these four very gen-
erous individuals are helping to ensure that we
will be able to attract and retain excellent faculty
for many years to come,” said Dean Kenneth R.
Lutchen. “These gifts from people who know the
College well represent a strong commitment to
its future and its ability to impact society.”
David E. Hollowell Professorship of EngineeringThrough Boston University’s Planned Giving
Offi ce, David E. Hollowell (ENG’69, ’72,
GSM’74), an expert in higher education fi nance,
administrative management and executive lead-
ership, has established a charitable remainder
trust that will eventually create the David E.
Hollowell Professorship of Engineering.
“Endowed professorships are a very pow-
erful mechanism for attracting and recognizing
the most outstanding teacher-scholars,” said
Hollowell. “I hope that this endowment will
assist the College in its continuing quest for
excellence in teaching and research.”
Hollowell is a member of Boston
University’s Board of Overseers; co-chair of
the BU Annual Fund with his wife, Kathleen
(GRS’71, SED’77); a member of the College of
Engineering’s Campaign Steering Committee;
past president of the BU Alumni Association
and past president and member of the ENG
alumni board from 1971 to 1987.
He served as senior vice president and
subsequently as executive vice president and
treasurer at the University of Delaware from
1988 to 2008, where he took a leading role in
streamlining administrative procedures and
oversaw a signifi cant campus renewal and
expansion program. Hollowell worked for BU
from 1969 to 1987, overseeing a wide range
of University operations in his ultimate role as
vice president for administration. His work in
expanding the BU and UD campuses earned
him honorary membership in the American
Institute of Architects. He is a past president of
the Society for College and University Planning
and served as a director of WSFS Financial
Corporation for 13 years.
The recipient of many honors from
professional and community organizations
recognizing his service, Hollowell earned a
bachelor’s degree in Information Engineering,
a master’s in Manufacturing Engineering and
an MBA, all at BU.
Charles Cantor Professorship of EngineeringProfessor Emeritus Charles Cantor (BME,
MED), a pioneer in systems and synthetic
biology who once directed the Human Genome
Project, a member of the National Academy of
Sciences and a recently named Charter Fellow
of the National Academy of Inventors (see p.
31), has included in his estate plan the Charles
Cantor Professorship of Engineering in cell or
molecular bio-engineering.
“Endowed professorships are essen-
tial if universities are to remain eff ective in
attracting and retaining world-class aca-
demic talent,” said Cantor, who chaired the
Biomedical Engineering Department in the
1990s, “and I am happy to be able to help BU
achieve these aims.”
In a career spanning more than fi ve
decades, he has co-authored a seminal
three-volume textbook on biophysical
chemistry and the fi rst genomics textbook;
published more than 450 peer-reviewed
articles; generated 54 US patents; developed
several biotech companies; and received
many prestigious awards and honors, from
membership in the National Academy of
Sciences to induction as a Guggenheim
Fellow and as an American Institute for
Medical and Biological Engineering Fellow.
Prior to joining the BU faculty in 1992, he
held positions at Columbia University and
the University of California, Berkeley.
Cantor’s research focuses on identifying
biological problems that are resistant to
conventional analytical approaches and then
developing new methodologies or techniques
for solving those problems.
As director of the Center for Advanced
Biotechnology at Boston University, Cantor has
developed methods for separating large DNA
molecules, for studying structural relationships
in complex assemblies of proteins and nucleic
acids and for sensitive detection of proteins and
nucleic acids in a variety of settings. His current
interests include the development of improved
methods for noninvasive prenatal diagnostics,
cancer diagnostics, early noninvasive detection
of other clinical conditions, mass spectrometry
of nucleic acids, improvement of methods for
detection of specifi c RNA sequences in living
cells and organisms, methods for protection
of organisms and materials from oxidative
damage and new uses for nucleic acid analysis,
including DNA-based array detectors.
David E. Hollowell (ENG’69, ’72, GSM’74)
Roger Dorf (MS, MFG’70)
Continued on page 8
Professor Emeritus Charles Cantor (BME, MED)
Peter Levine (ENG’83)
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Shining Light on the ProblemNEW LASER TECHNIQUE BOOSTS ACCURACY OF DNA SEQUENCING METHOD
Low-cost, ultra-fast DNA sequencing would rev-olutionize health care and biomedical research, sparking major advances in drug development, preventative medicine and personalized medi-cine. A physician could determine the probabil-ity that you’ll develop a specific genetic disease or tolerate selected medications by gaining access to the entire sequence of your genome. In pursuit of that goal, Associate Professor Amit Meller (BME, MSE) has spent much of the past decade spearheading a method that uses solid state nanopores—two-to-five-nanometer-wide holes in silicon chips that read DNA strands as they pass through—to optically sequence the four nucleotides encoding each DNA molecule.
Now Meller and a team of researchers at Boston University—Professor Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE) and research assistants Nicolas Di Fiori (Physics, PhD’13) and Allison
Squires (BME, PhD’14)—and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have discovered a sim-ple way to improve the sensitivity, accuracy and speed of the method, making it an even more viable option for DNA sequencing or character-ization of small proteins.
In the November 3 online edition of Nature
Nanotechnology, the team demonstrated that focusing a low-power, commercially available green laser on a nanopore increases the current near walls of the pore, which is immersed in salt water. As the current increases, it sweeps the salt water along with it in the opposite direction of incoming samples. The onrushing water, in turn, acts as a brake, slowing down the passage of DNA through the pore. As a result, nanoscale sensors in the pore can get a higher-resolution read of each nucleotide as it crosses the pore and identify small proteins in their native state that could not previously be detected.
“The light-induced phenomenon that we describe in this paper can be used to switch on and off the ‘brakes’ acting on individual biopoly-mers, such as DNA or proteins sliding through the nanopores, in real time,” Meller explained. “This critically enhances the sensing resolution
of solid-state nanopores, and can be easily inte-grated in future nanopore-based DNA sequenc-ing and protein detection technologies.”
The research is funded by a $4.2 million grant from
the National Institutes of Health’s Revolutionary
Genome Sequencing Technologies—The $1,000
Genome program, which seeks to reduce the cost of
sequencing a human genome to $1,000.
Shining a green laser beam on a solid-state nanopore immersed in a salt water solution increases electrical surface charge and current at the pore surface. The current, in turn, sweeps the salt water in the opposite direction of incoming DNA molecules, slowing them down enough for nanoscale sensors to identify each DNA nucleotide with greater sensitivity.
Companies to Pay Licensing Fees to Settle ENG Patent Infringement SuitBU TO BE COMPENSATED FOR TECHNOLOGY IN POPULAR ELECTRONICS PRODUCTS
Technology giants Apple, Amazon and Sony are among 25 companies that have settled lawsuits filed by BU alleging infringement of a professor’s patented technology for producing blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
The settlement was negotiated with RPX, a San Francisco firm that acquires patent rights for corporate clients to help them avoid law-suits. RPX will pay BU a licensing fee for the pat-ents, which will be available to all RPX members. About a dozen firms that aren’t RPX members remain in litigation with the University.
The suits, filed last year, involved the use of gallium nitride thin films, patented in the 1990s by Professor Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE). The films facilitate the production of high-quality blue LEDs, which are used in electronics products ranging from flat-panel displays on handheld devices to televisions and general lighting. Many popular consumer products incorporate the tech-nology, the University says, including the iPhone 5, the iPad and the Kindle Paperwhite 6.
“This settlement, as well as the licensing of the patents previously by other blue LED man-ufacturers, is recognition of the importance of my work in the development of this novel tech-nology,” said Moustakas.
Vinit Nijhawan, managing director of BU Technology Development, said the settlement “acknowledges Ted’s patent as being a key part of the blue LED industry, which is estimated at about $11 billion annually.
“This is really a victory for him,” said Nijhawan. “It acknowledges him as one of the key inventors behind the blue LED.”
BU said it sued the companies to safeguard the research and invention of one of its faculty members. “We’re protecting our intellectual property,” Provost Jean Morrison said when the suits were announced last year. “The cre-ation of new knowledge is fundamental to our mission. Ted Moustakas created a process that significantly improves the performance of these products.”
— Rich Barlow, BU Today
Professor Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE) inspecting the growth of nitride-based semiconductor materials.
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Boston University Assistant Professor James C. Bird (ME, MSE) and
collaborators in the Varanasi Group at MIT’s Department of Mechanical
Engineering found that when they augmented micro- or nanostructured
surfaces with periodic, wrinkle-like features, liquid drops bounced off at
faster rates than previously thought possible. The engineers reported their
fi ndings in the cover story of the November 21 issue of Nature.
Prior to adding ridge-like features to a micro- or nanostructured surface,
a water drop would spread out to a maximum diameter, retract until the
edges of the drop met its stationary center point, and bounce off the sur-
face. With the introduction of the ridges, the center point moved to meet
the edges as the drop recoiled, heading it off at the pass. The drop then split
in two before jumping off the surface.
“We’ve demonstrated that we can use surface texture to reshape a
drop as it recoils in such a way that the overall contact time is signifi -
cantly reduced,” said Bird, the paper’s lead author, who directs the
Interfacial Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at BU. “The upshot is that the
surface stays drier longer if this contact time is reduced, which has the
potential to be useful for a variety of applications.”
Such surfaces may improve the performance of systems that
operate better under dry conditions, such as steam turbines or aircraft
wings, and enable cold surfaces, such as rooftops, to resist icing by
shedding liquid drops before the drops freeze.
Introducing the ridges to micro- and nanostructured surfaces
reduced contact time from 12.4 to 7.8 milliseconds, or by about 37 percent.
Based on peer-reviewed studies going back to the 1960s, the experi-
ment produced the shortest contact time achieved in the lab under
comparable conditions.
The researchers drew upon funds from the National Science
Foundation and Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency. Bird and
his MIT collaborators—senior author Kripa Varanasi, Rajeev Dhiman
and Hyuk-Min Kwon—have fi led patents on the methods described in
the Nature paper.
Water drop bouncing off surface without (A) and with (B and C) ridge-like features.
A New Wrinkle in WaterproofingBU, MIT TEAM ENGINEERS SURFACES THAT REPEL FLUIDS FASTER
0 ms 2.7 ms 4.7 ms 7.8 ms 12.4 ms
0 ms 2.7 ms 4.7 ms 7.8 ms
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8 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
Peter J. Levine Career Development Professorship Fund Peter Levine (ENG’83) has pledged $300,000 to
establish the Peter J. Levine Career Development
Professorship Fund, which will attract and sup-
port promising junior faculty to the College of
Engineering.
The fund will support two consecutive
faculty members over a six-year period. They will
receive support for their fi rst three years as newly
recruited members of the Engineering faculty.
“I am proud to support Dean Lutchen in his
eff orts to attract, recruit and develop top-notch
junior faculty who will not only advance their
fi elds but also impact the world beyond the
lab,” said Levine.
A newly appointed member of the Boston
University Board of Trustees and ENG Dean’s
Leadership Advisory Board, Levine is a general
partner at Andreesen Horowitz, a leading
Silicon Valley high-tech venture capital fi rm.
Levine has more than 20 years of experience
in the software industry in engineering, sales,
marketing and executive management in startup
and corporate environments. He has served in
many executive positions at software companies,
including Citrix Systems, Inc., Xensource Inc., and
Veritas Software Corp. In addition to earning his
bachelor’s degree in engineering at BU, Levine
attended MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
He is a management lecturer at the Stanford
Graduate School of Business and a former entre-
preneurship lecturer at the Sloan School.
Dorf-Ebner Distinguished Faculty Fellow Award Roger Dorf (MS, MFG’70) has pledged
$500,000 to establish the Dorf-Ebner
Distinguished Faculty Fellow Award, which will
support a mid-career College of Engineering
faculty member who has demonstrated excep-
tional excellence, innovation and impact in both
research and teaching, and who is clearly on track
to become a senior leader in his or her fi eld.
Named in memory of Professor Merrill
Ebner (MFG), Dorf’s mentor and pioneer of the
fi eld of manufacturing engineering, the award
will fund each recipient for fi ve years of discre-
tionary initiatives in research and/or education.
The fi rst recipient will be named by the end of
the 2013–2014 academic year.
“Merrill Ebner was a pioneer in manufac-
turing engineering education, establishing the
College of Engineering as a leader in the US in
the late ‘60s,” said Dorf. “ENG has continued
to show great foresight and leadership over
the years in establishing meaningful and
timely programs, from the establishment of
the Biomedical Engineering Department to the
implementation of Societal Engineer initiatives
and the Engineering Product Innovation Center.
This award is meant to support some of the
very talented faculty members who will be key
to that continued leadership.”
A member of the College of Engineering
Dean’s Leadership Advisory Board, chair of
the ENG Campaign Steering Committee, and
co-chair of the BU Texas Regional Campaign
Committee, Dorf has received both the ENG
and BU Distinguished Alumni Awards. He
served for more than 40 years in executive and
engineering leadership roles before retiring
from his position as vice president of Cisco
Systems in 2009. He previously served as
president and CEO of Navini Networks and in
leadership positions at Celite Systems, Nortel
Networks, Synch Research, AT&T, Cullinet
Software and IBM.
Based in Dallas, Texas, Dorf is active in
several civic and academic organizations.
Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chemistry,
MSE) published two papers in Europe’s
leading chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie
on highly promising biomedical engineering
breakthroughs.
Reversible Hydrogel Seals WoundsResearchers at Grinstaff ’s lab and Boston’s Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)
have developed a highly absorbent hydrogel
that not only seals wounds, but can later be
dissolved and gently removed. Intended for
wounds that must be quickly closed to stem
blood loss and prevent infection but later
reopened for more extensive treatment, the bio-
compatible gel is particularly suitable for injuries
sustained in combat or remote areas and may
well end up in the toolkits of fi rst responders and
emergency room medical personnel.
Reopening a wound can cause damage
to injured tissue, particularly when blood-
clotting agents or dressings were initially
applied. The BU-BIDMC team’s wound
closure system is the fi rst that not only stops
bleeding for several hours, adheres to the
wound site and is easy to apply, but also is
easy to remove in a controlled manner before
surgery or other procedures.
“Today’s trauma wound closure materials,
once applied, must later be cut out,” said
Grinstaff . “We’ve introduced a mild process
for removing a hydrogel sealant from a wound
where there’s no cutting or scraping involved.”
Self-Propelled Nanoparticles Deliver Osteoporosis Drug Directly to Bone CracksA novel method for detecting and delivering
healing drugs to newly formed micro-cracks in
bones has been invented by a team of chemists
and bioengineers at Boston University and Penn
State University co-led by Grinstaff .
The method uses tiny, self-powered
nanoparticles, or nanomotors, to deliver the
drugs directly to the cracks. The energy that
revs the motors of the nanoparticles and
sends them rushing toward the crack comes
from an unlikely source—the crack itself. As a
crack emerges in a bone, minerals leach out as
positively charged particles, or ions, which pull
the negatively charged nanoparticles toward
the crack.
Sealing Wounds, Repairing BonesGRINSTAFF’S LATEST INNOVATIONS
This research-microscope image shows the increasing density at the bone-crack site during a 40-minute test of particles that can carry the bone-healing medication. The particles were treated with a red-glowing fluorescent dye.
Four Generous Gifts continued from page 5
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E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 9
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BME Software Helps High School Junior Win Google Science Fair Grand Prize PROJECT APPLIES SOFTWARE TO IDENTIFY FLU DRUG CANDIDATES
When 17-year-old Eric Chen was preparing his entry for the 2013 Google Science Fair— an online competition for teens with ideas to change the world—he set his sights on finding a systematic way to discover novel compounds for a new kind of anti-flu medi-cine effective against all influenza viruses, including pandemic strains. While pursu-ing his research at the National Biomedical Computation Resource at the University of California, San Diego, the high school junior came across just the right software for the job: a computational modeling tool, FTMap, developed by Professor Sandor Vajda (BME, Chemistry) and Research Assistant Professor Dima Kozakov (BME), that was designed to facilitate drug discovery. Applying FTMap to the problem, he was able to pinpoint several candidate compounds.
Impressed with the project and its poten-tial, in September an international panel of scientists named Chen winner of the 2013 Google Science Fair Grand Prize and also the winner in his age group. Chen beat out 89 other semifinalists (whittled down to 15 finalists in July) from across the globe who submitted projects on everything from cancer detection to environmental protection. At the awards ceremony at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, Chen received $50,000 in scholarship funding and a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands.
FTMap searches the surfaces of proteins for areas that can bind to candidate drug mol-
ecules. Chen used the software to search for novel compounds that could shut down endo-nuclease, a critical viral protein that enables flu viruses to survive and thrive. Combining FTMap results with biological studies, he iden-tified a number of novel, potent endonuclease inhibitors.
“Chen’s success demonstrates that the FTMap server provides insightful analysis of protein binding sites and thus facilitates drug discovery,” said Kozakov. “Introduced in 2011, FTMap already has more than 1,000 regular users worldwide, and it is easy enough to use that even a talented high school student can generate spectacular results.”
2013 Google Science Fair winners Viney Kumar (Australia, 13–14 age category), Ann Makosinski (Canada, 15–16), Elif Bilgin (Turkey, Voter’s Choice) and Grand Prize winner Eric Chen (USA, 17–18). Chen used BME-based computational modeling tools to advance discovery of anti-flu drugs.
ENG Team Takes Gold in Biomolecular Design Competition STUDENTS DEVELOP NANOSCALE STRUCTURES TO PROBE NEURONS
A team consisting of five undergraduates has become the first from the University to partici-pate in BIOMOD, an international student bio-molecular design competition from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering focused on the systematic assembly of bio-logical molecules into complex nanoscale machines that can perform useful tasks. Having designed and implemented their proj-ect over the summer, the team presented it to a panel of judges at BIOMOD’s annual Jamboree at Harvard University in November—and emerged as one of 13 gold winners.
Competitors included many top-tier col-leges and universities across the globe, from Columbia University to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, advancing biomolecular devices capable of everything from fighting cancer to detecting the presence of pathogens.
The BU team, Terriergami, sought to design a novel approach to fabricate DNA origami, or nanoscale objects made of folded DNA, to reach brain cells in an efficient man-ner. To achieve their goal, the students sys-tematically folded DNA into barrel-shaped structures, attaching a peptide to the surface of the barrel to improve brain cell targeting capability. Terriergami’s nanoscale objects could be developed to sense a neuron’s cel-lular environment or deliver drugs directly to it, and ultimately enable clinicians to diagnose or treat brain disorders.
“To my knowledge, this is one of the first proof-of-principle demonstrations of deliver-
ing DNA origami to neurons,” said Assistant Professor Xue Han (BME), who worked with the BU team in her lab.
Supervised by Han and BME postdoctoral fellow Richie Kohman, the team includes three BME seniors, Prakash Iyer (also major-ing in Neuroscience), Aditya Sengupta and Harvin Vallabhaneni; one junior, Steve Man (Computer Science); and one BME sopho-more, Sangeeta Satish. The undergraduates joined the team eager to explore DNA origami and its applications and came away with new skills and insights.
“Over the summer we used DNA as build-ing blocks and self-assembly methods to create tiny delivery ‘cages’ out of the DNA,” said Vallabhaneni. “These were all concepts I studied in introductory courses. Through BIOMOD, I was expected not only to under-stand these concepts, but also to apply them to solve problems.”
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 9 4/4/14 2:35 PM
VACCINES FROM TOBACCO PLANTS ENGINEERED TO COMBAT DEADLY VIRUSES
POWERFUL MIRRORSUSED IN LEADING-EDGE TELESCOPES AND MICROSCOPES
TARGETED CHEMOTHERAPY THAT PROTECTS HEALTHY TISSUE
DETECTING SUBSTANDARD DRUGS TO KEEP MEDICINE SAFE
ALGORITHMS FOR SMART GRIDS THAT REDUCE ELECTRICITY COSTS AND CO
2
DIAGNOSIS OF EARLY STAGE CANCER WITHOUT INVASIVEPROCEDURES
BIO-INSPIRED FLIGHT CONTROL ALGORITHMS FOR COMPLEX UAV MISSIONS
ANTIBIOTICSTHAT OVERCOME DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA
HIGH-QUALITY BLUE LEDS FOR SMARTPHONE DISPLAYS
AN ARTIFICIAL PANCREASEASING TYPE 1 DIABETES CARE
MORE INTERNET BANDWIDTH AT LOW COST
PRECISION AIRPORT SCREENING FOR FASTER, SAFER CHECK-IN
SMARTER CITIES THAT SAVE TIME, MONEY AND ENERGY
BIOFLIG
10 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
CCINES M TOBACCO
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 10 4/4/14 2:35 PM
BY MARK DWORTZAN
How a Once-Tiny Aviation School Became a
Hotbed of Innovation
& HEALTHIER.EASIER
THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING HAS BEEN MAKING YOUR WORLD
SAFER
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 11 4/4/14 2:35 PM
WHAT’S CHANGED IN HALF A CENTURY?
1,416 undergrad enrollment
394 master’s enrollment
349 PhD enrollment
52 million annual sponsoredresearch dollars
Top 20 percent rankingU.S. News & World Report
On numbers alone, the College’s success is indis-
putable. Between 1964 and 2013, the number of
degrees conferred annually has increased from zero
to 281 bachelor’s, 184 master’s and 53 PhDs; enroll-
ment from about 100 to 1,416 undergraduate, zero
to 394 master’s and zero to 349 PhDs; faculty from
10 to more than 120; advanced degree programs
off ered from zero to nine master’s and six PhDs;
and annual sponsored research dollars from zero
to $52 million. Meanwhile, the College’s position in
U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey of engi-
neering graduate programs nationwide has surged
from unranked to the top 20 percent nationally.
As impressive as they are, the numbers only tell
part of the story. In the past fi ve decades, the College
has become an innovation platform for faculty,
students and alumni, who have leveraged the skills
of the engineer to signifi cantly advance their fi elds
and impact the world. They have conceived, devel-
oped and deployed technologies that have upgraded
the quality of health care, energy production and
distribution, communication and computation,
homeland and global security, and many other
essential and life-enhancing services.
College of Engineering students, faculty and
alumni have made their mark as Societal Engi-
neers, improving the quality of life around the
globe while giving the ENG community much to
celebrate in its fi rst half-century. If its rich history
of high-impact innovation is any guide, the College
can look forward to many more achievements in
the next 50 years.
12 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
IN JUST 50 YEARS, Boston
University’s
College of
Engineering has
grown into one
of the world’s
fi nest training
grounds for future
engineers and
a wellspring of
leading-edge
technology. The
College has seen dramatic
increases not only in the size of
its on-campus community, but
also in the quality and societal
impact of its educational and
research programs. Decade by
decade, the College has risen to
become a national leader in expe-
riential engineering education
and diverse fi elds ranging from
synthetic biology to nanotech-
nology to photonics, resulting in
record levels of student applica-
tions, research funding and phil-
anthropic support.
IENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 12 4/4/14 2:36 PM
IN THE BEGINNING�.�.�. The College of Engineering can trace its roots to a vacant American
Airlines building at Logan Airport, where BU professor Hilding
Carlson began teaching aeronautical engineering in 1928. In 1940, he
launched the New England Aircraft School, which off ered an associ-
ate’s degree. Boston University acquired the school in 1951, renamed
it the College of Industrial Technology (CIT) and began adding
bachelor’s degree programs. By 1963, when Arthur T. Thompson was
appointed dean, the school had moved to the BU campus.
Thompson had big plans for the tiny school. His mission was to
transform the budding institution into an accredited engineering
program and to develop qualifi ed engineers with “the capacity for
responsible and eff ective action as members of our society.” Following
a joint decision by Thompson and BU President Harold C. Case, CIT
was renamed the College of Engineering on February 27, 1964.
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.
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 fi rst goal was to transition under-
graduate degree programs in technology, aeronautics and manage-
ment 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 in the
new BS programs to BU’s College of Liberal Arts and streamlining
required engineering courses, Thompson freed up funds to expand
the faculty. Starting with an average of three faculty members per
department, he increased total full-time faculty to 12 by the end
of his term. In those years, faculty focused largely on teaching,
spending one day a week on “creative activities” that could develop
into research.
Around 100 students enrolled in the College of Engineering’s
fi rst full academic year in 1964, a fi gure that rose to approximately
250 by 1975. During Thompson’s term, the College instituted the
fi rst 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.
A notable success was the Manufacturing Engineering Depart-
ment, which taught best practices in manufacturing engineering to
students and industry professionals. The department was the fi rst in
Left: ENG traces its roots to a vacant American Airlines building at Logan Airport. Right: Opening of the College of Engineering Building at 110 Cummington Street in February 1964. Left to right are Merritt A. Williamson, dean of the College of
Professor Merrill Ebner, chair of the Manufacturing Engineering Department (MFG), in 1970. The MFG Department was the first in the US to grant undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field, and for many years the nation’s most prominent.
ENG AT 50: FROM 1964 TO “WHAT’S NEXT?”
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 13
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Engineering and Architecture at Penn State, BU President Harold C. Case and BU College of Engineering Dean Arthur T. Thompson. Williamson gave the Convocation Address at the inaugural ceremony of the College.
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 13 4/4/14 2:36 PM
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14 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
the US to grant undergraduate and graduate degrees in the fi eld, and
for many years was the nation’s most prominent.
By 1971, Thompson had not only broadened the College’s off er-
ings 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.
“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
de Winter (ME), one of the College’s original faculty members. “We’ve
since carved out niches from underwater acoustics to nanotechnology.”
1975–1989: A TIME OF EXPLOSIVE GROWTH Despite a successful fi rst decade, the College’s future looked murky
as its second dean, Louis Padulo, took the helm.
“Johns Hopkins, Yale, NYU and other universities had dropped
undergraduate engineering programs due to low enrollments,” Padulo
recalls. “The College of Engineering was considered fragile at the time.”
But during his tenure as dean from 1975 to 1985, Padulo managed
to transform the small College into a much more robust, visible and
respected institution. Attacking the problem of low enrollments
relentlessly with marketing savvy and charm, he grew the student
body nearly tenfold, from 250 to 2,481, in as many years.
Through recruitment eff orts and initiatives such as launching 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 91 points above the national average of prospective engi-
neering freshmen. That same year, ENG had one of the highest pro-
portions of female (25 percent) and minority (20 percent) students
in the country.
To meet the needs of a larger, more competitive student body, the
College expanded and diversifi ed its degree programs, going from
fi ve BS and three MS programs in fi ve fi elds in 1975 to 24 BS, MS and
PhD programs in eight fi elds. Padulo introduced several creative
initiatives that transformed campus life and expanded the College’s
footprint, including the Late Entry Accelerated Program (LEAP),
which continues to off er master’s degrees in engineering for non-
engineers; the Cooperative Education Program, which still provides
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.
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.
To give professors more time to pursue their research inter-
ests, Padulo reduced their teaching loads by enlisting engineers
and business people as adjunct faculty members. The College also
expanded 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 eff ort.
1990–2005: BECOMING A LEADING RESEARCH INSTITUTION When Professor Charles DeLisi (BME), a leading biomedical
researcher in mapping the human genome, became the new dean in
1990, he began recruiting several top-notch researchers and devel-
oping 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).
DeLisi began by turning the Biomedical Engineering Department
into the world’s foremost biomolecular engineering research hub. He
founded the Biomolecular Engineering Research Laboratory, the fi rst
lab at an engineering college to apply the mathematical methods of engi-
neering to biomedical problems, and recruited several eminent scholars
in molecular biology, including Charles Cantor, a pioneer in synthetic
biology who once directed the Human Genome Project. DeLisi also
hired leading cellular biology experts and tenured Professor James J.
Collins (BME, MSE, SE), also a pioneer in synthetic as well as systems
biology. As a result, DeLisi’s successor, Professor David K. Campbell
(Physics, ECE), oversaw the department’s receipt in 2001 of a $14 mil-
lion Whitaker Foundation Leadership Award and launched discussions
resulting in major funding from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
DeLisi also upgraded the Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
Department through world-class recruits, and the Manufacturing
Engineering Department through the 1994 launch of the Fraunhofer
Center for Manufacturing Innovation. Meanwhile, DeLisi established a
Dean Louis Padulo (right) increased the student body nearly tenfold in as many years.
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 14 4/4/14 2:36 PM
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 15
solid core of photonics research, bringing in leading US researchers. The
1997 opening of the Photonics Center, a 235,000-square-foot facility
dedicated to the development of advanced photonic device prototypes,
coupled with major faculty achievements such as Professor Theodore
Moustakas’s (ECE, MSE) co-development of the blue LED, solidifi ed the
College’s position as a leader in photonics.
“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. “We didn’t even
have a laser, whereas now we are a brand name in photonics.”
Under the deanships of DeLisi and Campbell, between 1990
and 2005 the number of full-time faculty rose 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 engineering,
biotechnology, molecular biology, hearing and other areas. It had
also expanded along Cummington Street, providing every depart-
ment with a dedicated building.
Meanwhile, graduate education expanded considerably. 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. In addition, admissions standards rose
sharply, along with many new fellowships and training grants.
On the undergraduate front, Campbell set an ambitious
goal—1,320 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 semester in a foreign country without prolonging their degree
program. Study Abroad participants developed greater awareness of
how engineering could enhance the quality of life across the globe—a
sensibility that would loom large at the College in the years ahead.
2006–PRESENT: CREATING THE SOCIETAL ENGINEER When Kenneth R. Lutchen took over as dean, he became more
acutely aware of undergraduates’ growing interest in making a posi-
tive diff erence in the world.
“They want a purpose in life,” he observes. “It’s not just about
fi nancial 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 redefi ned 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 identifi ed a set of attributes that Societal
Engineers should have. By 2010 he rolled out a series of experiential
opportunities to enable undergraduates to cultivate those attributes.
These include the Technology Innovation Scholars program,
which sends ENG students to K–12 schools to show how engineering
impacts society; Engineers in the Real World, which brings working
engineers into the sophomore classroom to explore career options;
the Lutchen Fellows program, which engages selected upper-
classmen in high-impact, faculty-supervised research projects; the
BU Chapter of Engineers Without Borders; and the Binoy K. Singh
Imagineering Lab, where students address societal challenges
through self-directed projects.
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 “fl ipped lecture,” in which students view lectures
Professor Malvin Teich (ECE) in the BU Photonics Center, 1997. DeLisi’s recruitment of Teich and other leading photonics researchers made the College of Engineering a “brand name” in the field.
Professor Charles Cantor (BME) (left), ENG Dean Charles DeLisi (second from right) and two researchers in the Dean’s Office, 1993. A pioneer in synthetic biology, Cantor was among several eminent scholars DeLisi recruited as he transformed the BME Department into a biomolecular engineering research hub.
ENG AT 50: FROM 1964 TO “WHAT’S NEXT?”LE
FT P
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, RIG
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Continued on page 19
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 15 4/4/14 2:36 PM
1964College of Industrial Technology renamed the BU College of Engineering/BS program in Engineering Management renamed Manufacturing Engineering (MFG)
1965BS programs in Systems Engineering (SE) and Information Engineering started/Aeronautical Engineering renamed Aerospace Engineering, and MS program initiated
1966BS program in Bioengineering initiated, the fi rst in the nation
1967MS programs in MFG and SE initiated
1968College creates joint master’s program in MFG and Business Administration/College receives fi rst external agency award
1969Bioengineering renamed Biomedical Engineering (BME)
1971BS programs in Aerospace, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering accredited; MFG is fi rst of its kind to be accredited in US
1973 ROTC unit returns to campus at ENG faculty request
1974BS programs initiated in Mechanical and Computer Engineering
1976BS program in Electrical Engineering (EE) initiated/ MS programs in Applied
Mechanics and Computer Systems Engineering initi-ated/Department of Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering (ECS) started
1977 College initiates MS program in EE
1981Late Entry Accelerated Program (LEAP)founded
1982First corporate classroom engineering television course off ered/Overseas MS program in ME initiated in Germany/College creates MS program in BME
1983 PhD degree in Engineering initiated and off ered through the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
1984 College establishes Neuromuscular Research Center (NMRC)
1985College 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 signifi cantly increase College research infrastructure/BU Trustees approve change from single PhD in Engineering to PhDs in Aerospace, Biomedical, Computer, Electrical, Manufacturing, Mechanical and Systems Engineering
1991 First students graduate with PhDs in EE, ME, BME
ENG AT 50: FROM 1964 TO “WHAT’S NEXT?”
LEAP
MBTA GREEN LINE 1966
1970s 1980s 1960s
MBTA GREEN LINE 1966
Top: ENG students in a typical lab setting, 1964. Bottom: Constructing a “hovercraft” in aerodynamics lab, 1969 (BU Photo)
Top: Professor Richard F. Vidale, head of the College’s Systems Engineering Department, 1977. Bottom: ENG students studying airplanes at Hanscom Air Force Base, 1972 (BU Photo)
Top: ENG students in typical lab setting, 1983. Bottom: Robot arm, 1982 (BU Photo)
16 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 16 4/4/14 2:36 PM
1993Centers 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 & Engineering opens
1997 BU Photonics Center opens
2001 BU receives $14 million Whitaker Foundation Leadership Award to expand biomedical engineering programs/MS programs in
Photonics and Global Manufacturing added/College launches Study Abroad program
2002 Center for Information & Systems Engineering started
2003 College breaks into top 50 engineering graduate programs in U.S. News & World Report
2005BU opens Life Sciences & Engineering Building
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 nano-technology, minors in MSE and SE
2010 College initiates Lutchen Fellowship Program, Innovative Engineering Education Faculty Fellowship Program and Technology Innovation Scholars Program
2011 College introduces six new MEng programs in CE, EE, MFG, ME, MSE and Photonics/Binoy K. Singh Imagineering Lab opens/Certifi cate programs in Engineering Innovation, Energy & Sustainability, MEMS and Product Design launched/College trade-marks “Boston University Creating the Societal Engineer”
2012 ENG adds Technology Innovation concentration; fi rst Imagineering Competition
2013 ENG opens Center of Synthetic Biology (CoSBi)/College initi-ates STEM Educator-Engineer Program (STEEP)
2014 Engineering Product Innovation Center opens
ch Center
ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS
1990s 2000s 2010s
ENGINEERS WITHOUT
Top: 1990s ENG Dean Charles DeLisi receives Presidential Citizens Medal at the White House (Photo courtesy of the White House). Bottom: BU Photonics Center opening, 1997 (Photo by Vernon Doucette)
Top: Professor James J. Collins (BME, MSE, SE) wins Metcalf Cup and Prize, 2000 (Photo by Fred Sway). Bottom: Associate Professor Tyrone Porter (ME, BME) and students, 2007 (Photo by Kalman Zabarsky)
Top: ENG Inspiration Ambassador Eni Adedokun advises fi fth grader, 2011 (Photo by Melody Komyerov). Bottom: Engineering Product Innovation Center, 2014 (Photo by Mike Spencer)
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 17
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 17 4/4/14 2:37 PM
College of Engineering faculty are pioneering new fi elds and advancing groundbreaking innovations to improve the quality of our lives today and for many years to come. Here’s a sampling of technologies emerging from ENG labs and the principal investiga-tors behind them:
HEALTH CARE
• (A) An artifi cial pancreas—the fi rst fully auto-
mated system for regulating blood glucose levels in
people with type I diabetes—is being developed by
Professor Edward Damiano (BME).
• Professor James Collins (BME, MSE, SE)—one of
the founders of the fi eld of synthetic and systems
biology—is leading eff orts to “turn off ” bacteria’s
resistance to antibiotics.
• (B) A device advanced by Associate Professor
Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE) detects counterfeit
or substandard drugs, potentially saving countless
lives, particularly in resource-limited countries.
• Engineered by Professor Andre Sharon (ME), the
fi rst fully automated, scalable “factory” using non-
genetically modifi ed green plants can mass-produce
vaccines and therapeutics within weeks, addressing
pandemics and other time-critical public health needs.
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
• (C) Led by Professor Thomas Little (ECE, SE), the
Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center is devel-
oping LED technology that can both illuminate and
enable high-speed, optical wireless communication.
• (D) A technology infrastructure for sensor network-
enabled, data-driven “Smart Cities” that makes it
easier to get around, save energy, communicate, and
stay healthy and safe is being developed by a team led
by Professor Christos Cassandras (ECE, SE), a pioneer
in the fi eld of discrete event dynamic systems.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
• (E) Faster, more accurate explosives detection
technologies for screening checked luggage, carry-on
items and passengers, based on machine learning,
optimization and image processing are being devel-
oped by Professor David Castañón (ECE, SE).
• Professor John Baillieul (ME, SE) is applying
lessons learned from bats, birds and insects to
create fl ight control algorithms that could enable
unmanned aerial vehicles to navigate more eff ec-
tively in cluttered environments for military, disaster
recovery and other missions.
PHOTONICS
• (F) Professor Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE) has
advanced a new fi ber-optic technology that could boost
internet bandwidth considerably at very low cost.
• After creating the technology that made production
of the now-ubiquitous blue LED possible, Professor
Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE) is using highly effi -
cient, deep ultraviolet LEDs for air and water purifi cation.
• Used in state-of-the-art telescopes and microscopes,
Professor Thomas Bifano’s (ME, MSE) MEMS-based,
deformable micro-mirrors are capable of detecting
everything from extrasolar planets to the progression of
retinal diabetes.
• Professor Irving J. Bigio devised a noninvasive optical
method that shows great promise as a low-cost, low-
maintenance, user-friendly clinical tool for diagnosing
early stage cancers in hollow organs, from the colon to
the esophagus.
NANOTECHNOLOGY
• (G) Associate Professor Catherine Klapperich
(BME, MSE) is working with the Fraunhofer Center
for Manufacturing Innovation at BU to develop
microfl uidic systems for portable, user-friendly, low-
cost point-of-care diagnostics of infl uenza and other
infectious diseases.
• Associate Professor Tyrone Porter (ME, BME) is
developing techniques that combine nanotechnology
and focused ultrasound to kill solid cancer tumors
with surgical precision and deliver targeted chemo-
therapy without damaging surrounding tissue.
ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
• (H) Professor Michael Caramanis (ME, SE) is
advancing algorithms designed to enable smart grids
to reduce the nation’s electricity costs and carbon
footprint while encouraging renewable energy
generation.
• An electrolysis method developed by Professor
Uday Pal (ME, MSE) and Associate Professor
Srikanth Gopalan (ME, MSE) can produce pure
metals from their oxides with zero carbon emis-
sions at a fraction of the cost of conventional metals
production, thereby enhancing US energy security, air
quality and economic growth.
ENG @ 50: Research Shaping Tomorrow
A B E
F H
G
D
C
18 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 18 4/4/14 2:37 PM
online at home and implement what they learned in a computer
lab, to real-world “challenge problems” posed to students during a
lecture as a way to immediately apply new concepts.
Meanwhile, the College initiated the Systems Engineering (SE) and
Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) divisions, encouraging multi-
disciplinary research collaboration; and new minors (MSE and SE) and
concentrations (aerospace engineering, manufacturing engineering,
energy technologies, nanotechnology, and technology innovation). Pro-
fessional education opportunities surged on campus with the introduc-
tion of eight new MEng programs and four new certifi cate programs.
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
health care, energy and the environment, communications and
security. Examples range from an eff ort to 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 to develop point-
of-care cancer diagnostic and treatment technologies.
COMING ATTRACTIONSEnergized by the success of its Societal Engineer programs, the Col-
lege of Engineering has an ambitious education and research agenda
for the years ahead. For example, the newly opened Engineering
Product Innovation Center (EPIC), a unique, hands-on facility, will
educate all students on product design-to-deployment-to-sustain-
ability (see story on p. 3).
The fall 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 con-
struct biomolecular components and synthetic gene networks to
reprogram cells, endowing them with novel functions ranging from
new fuels to medical treatments.
Other upcoming educational initiatives include increased inte-
gration of digital technologies to enhance courses; new programs
with the Schools of Management, Education and Public Health;
continued eff orts to build the engineering pipeline through outreach
to K–12 students; and the Summer Institute for Innovation & Tech-
nology Leadership, which recruits companies to host teams of ENG
and SMG students to tackle targeted problems.
Looking deeper into the future, BU has proposed to construct the
Center for Integrated Life Sciences & 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 10 years. BU is also proposing a 165,000-square-
foot science and engineering research building. By 2016, ENG is expected
to add about 61,500 square feet of new lab and classroom space.
Even as the College continues to leverage its strengths in pho-
tonics; bioengineering; information science and systems engineering;
advanced materials; micro- and nanosystems; and other fi elds to move
society forward, it also aims to 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.
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 19
Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen (bottom left) spearheaded several experiential learning initiatives designed to turn ENG undergraduates into Societal Engineers, including the Binoy K. Singh Imagineering Lab (right) and the Lutchen Fellows Program (top left).
ENG AT 50: FROM 1964 TO “WHAT’S NEXT?”P
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continued from page 15
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 19 4/4/14 2:38 PM
20 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
RUTH HUNTER ’64A TRUE STORY OF NOVEL IDEAS
BY MARK DWORTZAN
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 20 4/4/14 2:38 PM
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 21
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ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 21 4/4/14 2:39 PM
BBeBeccooommmingng ENGNGG’’s’s First ValedictorianHunter began learning how to anticipate and solve engineering
challenges in 1960 as a student at Boston University’s College
of Industrial Technology (CIT), where she was the only woman
undergraduate in her aeronautical engineering class. Inspired
to explore engineering as a career by her technologically savvy
father, and disinterested in the typical jobs available to women at
the time—teacher, secretary, nurse—she encountered a few speed
bumps her freshman year.
“That year we had to take machine shop, mechanical drawing
and kinematics,” Hunter recalls. “I was at a big disadvantage
because in high school women weren’t allowed in shop or mechan-
ical drafting classes.” Despite the handicaps, she made the Dean’s
List for four years and went on to become the class valedictorian
when she graduated summa cum laude in 1964.
By that time, CIT’s name had changed to the College of Engi-
neering, making Hunter the new College’s fi rst valedictorian. She
went on to earn a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics
at the University of Michigan, where she received a NASA fellow-
ship and was the only American Amelia Earhart Fellowship recip-
ient. Later she returned to BU’s Graduate School of Management
to earn an MBA.
TTaTakingg on Multiple Societal ChC allengesHunter began her career working on aerodynamic design and soft-
ware development for an Air Force contractor. She moved on to a
Cambridge-based NASA research center, where she developed
software for applications ranging from pattern recognition of
moonscapes and clouds in support of potential unmanned plan-
etary missions to the tracking of aircraft departures and arrivals.
She also conducted automotive energy effi ciency analyses.
“I remember developing software in assembly language, machine
language and FORTRAN on batch processing computers,” says
Hunter. “One early IBM microcomputer required that software be
loaded via paper tape through a huge console. If you got one job con-
trol language comma wrong, you had to submit a new run and wait
overnight for the corrected output.”
Hunter’s Volpe Center office is cluttered with the contents of nearly 40 years of pioneering work.
22 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 22 4/4/14 2:39 PM
In 1975 she joined the Volpe Center as a multidisciplinary engi-
neer and began taking on some of the nation’s most prominent
technological challenges.
In her fi rst fi ve years, Hunter provided technical leadership
and software development for a project aimed at measuring and
improving automotive, heavy truck and bus fuel effi ciency in the
wake of the mid-70s energy crisis.
For much of the next 25 years, she supported numerous mili-
tary logistics analyses and software development eff orts—some
quite high-profi le. Hunter personally planned the urban search-
and-rescue teams and emergency response equipment transport
in the wake of the September 11 attacks. She worked with the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Prevention on software for tracking
the spread of infectious diseases through international air travel,
and with the Department of Energy on an analysis of a system
tracking nuclear waste shipments. She subsequently served as
acting chief of what’s now called the Aviation Safety Management
Systems Division, where she is a principal technical advisor.
StStililill GGoinini g StStrongDecade after decade, Hunter has relished the opportunity to help
solve a wide range of transportation-related societal problems.
“I’ve always believed in being multidisciplinary,” she explains in
her offi ce, which is cluttered with the contents of nearly 40 years of
Volpe institutional memory. “You can apply the underlying precepts
that you learn in one area to other areas to avoid starting from scratch.”
In the past fi ve years, Hunter has indeed transferred lessons
learned to address a number of critical aviation challenges. In addi-
tion to her analyses of commercial space transportation systems,
she is leading a project to develop data-driven criteria for aviation
hazardous materials inspections and is working as part of an FAA
team to assess the safety impacts of air traffi c control systems, set
to be deployed between now and 2025, to reduce airborne and air-
port congestion.
“We’re the only ones comprehensively examining the future
safety of next-generation air traffi c control innovations,” she says.
“Based on projected fl eet composition and schedule forecasts, as
well as human factors issues, we’re studying the likely impacts on
pilots, controllers, passenger risk and departure-arrival delays
under various weather and traffi c conditions.”
Over the course of her career, Hunter has succeeded not only
in applying her knowledge to solve complex new challenges,
but also in passing on that knowledge to the next generation
of engineers, observes George Hebert, a project manager at
the Volpe Center who has long known Hunter as a supervisor,
coworker and friend. “Ruth expends a tremendous amount of
energy guiding and supporting less experienced coworkers, and
she does so in the most productive and enjoyable way that you
almost don’t realize she is actively mentoring you,” says Hebert.
“It’s as if she were the best college professor you ever had and
at the same time a trusted friend. Her insight and advice are
always spot on.”
Hunter outside the Volpe Center building in Cambridge.
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 23
ER
IC L
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ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 23 4/4/14 2:39 PM
24 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
PH
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ByteLight CEO Daniel Ryan (ECE’10)
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 24 4/4/14 2:39 PM
HOW MANY ENGINEERS
DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB
?
Imagine you’re strolling through the aisles of a supermarket and just as you approach your favorite pasta sauce, a virtual “buy one, get one free” coupon for the product, redeemable at checkout, appears on your smartphone.
Rather than having you page through a weekly compilation of in-store off ers—that’s so 20th century—the store has delivered the coupon directly to your phone based on your current location and shopping history.
Making this possible are standard over-head LED lights that not only illuminate the room but also function as an indoor GPS. Enhanced with microchips, the bulbs contain sophisticated software that causes them to fl icker fast enough to transmit a distinctive, information-rich signal that a smartphone camera can detect and a retailer’s mobile app can decode.
SEE WHERE LED MEETS GPS. AND HOW A BU GRAD IS
BECOMING A MARKET LEADER.BY MARK DWORTZAN
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 25
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 25 4/4/14 2:39 PM
26 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
I n just three years, the Boston-based startup that devel-
oped the software ByteLight has become a market
leader in indoor location solutions, a burgeoning
industry enabling mobile device users to access dis-
counts, directions and other highly targeted services
at precise locations within buildings. Energized by
a recent investor infl ux of $3 million, ByteLight is piloting
its technology at several global retailers, including three of
the top 10 big box stores, as well as at 100 stores in China.
Spearheading this success story is ByteLight’s CEO, Daniel Ryan
(ECE’10), who cofounded the company with classmate Aaron Ganick
(ECE’10) in 2011 based on concepts they studied and implemented
as research assistants in Professor Thomas Little’s (ECE, MSE, SE)
Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center. Both inspired by
childhood visits to Boston’s Museum of Science to pursue careers
in electrical engineering, Ryan and Ganick devised ByteLight’s
core technology in the lab, developed a prototype and business
plan in technology incubator space at the BU Photonics Center and
Highland Capital Partners’ Summer Program, and then raised suf-
fi cient capital to launch the company. While Ganick moved on last
year to pursue other endeavors, Ryan continues to grow ByteLight
to meet a surging demand for its unique indoor location solution.
It’s a demand driven partly by the rapid adoption of LEDs, and
partly by the product’s market-leading accuracy, responsiveness
and reliability. LED lights equipped with ByteLight software can
pinpoint a mobile device user’s location to within one meter in less
than a second—far outpacing the performance of other indoor posi-
tioning systems developed by industry giants, including Apple and
Google, that triangulate distances between hotpots and handsets on
wireless networks.
“Sub-meter accuracy has long been the holy grail for retailers
experimenting with indoor location,” says Ryan. “With ByteLight,
retailers fi nally have the opportunity to install a wall-to-wall solu-
tion that just works.”
Also lifting ByteLight above its competitors are its low infrastruc-
ture cost and compatibility with all mobile devices. Unlike other
solutions that require additional hardware such as WiFi hotspots or
Bluetooth beacons, ByteLight software exploits an existing and ubiq-
uitous infrastructure: overhead lighting. ByteLight not only uses
light waves to transmit useful information to smartphone-toting
customers at specifi c locations, but also to quickly and securely
verify their presence for loyalty programs, mobile payments and
more at “tap-and-go” check-in and check-out locations equipped
with the company’s Light Field Communication readers. Compat-
ible with all smartphones, the ByteLight readers cost fi ve percent
as much as the Near Field Communication (NFC) readers, which
use radio signals to process such transactions and work only with a
limited set of mobile devices.
Once integrated into a retailer’s app and LED lights, ByteLight
software promises to boost customer loyalty and sales by delivering
personalized savings from store shelf to checkout. Since ByteLight
technology was introduced in 100 stores in China, the stores have
seen a 30 percent increase in loyalty reward redemptions.
“Brick-and-mortar retailers are demanding new solutions
that can leverage digital assets within physical store locations to
engage and retain customers,” says Don Dodge, developer advocate
at Google and an industry leader in indoor location technology.
“ByteLight’s indoor location solutions assist retailers with delivering
hyper-targeted information and content to customers on mobile
BYTELIGHT SOFTWARE PROMISES TO BOOST CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND SALES BY
DELIVERING PERSONALIZED SAVINGS FROM STORE SHELF TO CHECKOUT.
As a smartphone-toting customer approaches a product in a department store, the ByteLight app displays discount information.
IMA
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ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 26 4/4/14 2:39 PM
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 27
devices within their stores based on the device’s precise location.
More importantly, these solutions fully integrate physical com-
merce with eCommerce to give retailers an omni-channel off ering.”
ByteLight’s primary focus is on the retail industry, but the com-
pany’s technology could also be deployed in venues ranging from
museums—including Boston’s Museum of Science, where ByteLight is
used in one exhibit to display location-sensitive content—to factories
to airplanes. To expand the company’s repertoire, ByteLight provides
its customers with a software development kit they can use to invent
new applications for the software-enhanced lights. In the coming
years, as the use of LED lighting and mobile devices continues to grow,
Ryan envisions integrating ByteLight technology into stadiums, con-
ference centers, schools, offi ce buildings, hospitals and other domains.
Professor Little, an advisor to the company and mentor to Ryan
during his undergraduate years, is optimistic about his former stu-
dent’s prospects. “Dan is an exceptional individual who epitomizes
what engineering school is all about—learning to solve problems. Any
problem,” said Little. “And to be adaptable and agile in a continuously
changing technological world. He has demonstrated the ability to
deliver a product coupled with software integration and analytics that
support a complex supply and distribution chain with diverse market
stakeholders.”
In his role as ByteLight’s CEO, Ryan draws on engineering, entre-
preneurial and interpersonal skills that he cultivated at the College
of Engineering, where he helped launch a small satellite while par-
ticipating in the BU Student-satellite for Applications and Training
(BUSAT) program, took an ENG/SMG course in entrepreneurship
and served as Class of �2010 Commencement speaker. Today, as he
steers ByteLight toward a 2014 rollout in US stores from a new offi ce
in Boston’s Fort Point Channel, Ryan fi nds himself applying these
skills to solve a full spectrum of problems.
“Each day brings a new problem, ranging from product devel-
opment to technology to new competition,” he says. “The key to
responding eff ectively and moving forward through the chaos is your
team. It’s that simple. At ByteLight, we’ve been fortunate to build an
incredibly talented core of technologists to take our vision and turn
it into reality.”
Manny Malandrakis (EE’10), one of the fi rst ENG alumni to
become a ByteLight employee, focuses on digital signal pro-
cessing and communications systems, two courses he took as an
undergraduate.
“These classes were the foundation of this company,” says Ryan.
“We’re leveraging the core theories and techniques we learned in
these courses every day.”
LEFT: Daniel Ryan (ECE’10) and Manny Malandrakis (EE’10). RIGHT: ByteLight software exploits an existing and ubiquitous infrastructure: overhead lighting.
PH
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ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 27 4/4/14 2:39 PM
ECE ALUM’S APP RESERVES SPOTS IN LOTS
ACROSS THE COUNTRY
BY RACHEL HARRINGTON
(YOUR CAR HERE)
“We were greeted with a smile and instructed to a great parking spot. Thank you. We will use you again!”
“CONVENIENT! EASY IN AND EASY OUT!”
“It was great because it was so close to the stadium . . . and they were very friendly and helpful! ”
“Well organized, with friendly attendants who gave us helpful directions when we were leaving.”
28 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
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ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 28 4/4/14 2:39 PM
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 29
PH
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WH
IZ
Fenway Park is a popular place. More than three million
people visit the ballpark each year and for many of
them it’s very tough fi nding a place to park. This situa-
tion compelled Jon Thornton (ECE’06) to co-develop
ParkWhiz.com, the nation’s fi rst and leading online
parking spot reservation service with access to more
than 2,000 parking lots and garages in 80 cities and 35 states.
The user-friendly ParkWhiz app allows customers to compare
the prices, location and amenities of parking lots close to their
destination on a map displayed on their smartphone or computer;
reserve a parking spot by selecting a location and paying by credit
card; follow on-screen directions to that location; and access the spot
by showing the parking attendant an online or printed parking pass.
Either manually or through an automated system, parking atten-
dants monitor inventory to ensure enough spots are available when
ParkWhiz customers arrive.
Founded in 2006, ParkWhiz stemmed from Thornton’s senior
design project, which he worked on with Professor Thomas Little
(ECE, SE). He designed a parking system that would allow drivers to
locate a parking space in a garage or at a meter and make a reservation.
“Jon had a key role in developing the software,” says Little. “It
moved sensor data into the cloud by enabling parking spot vacancy
sensors to communicate occupancy data to wireless gateways that
collected information on parking availability.”
Serendipitously, a research paper Little wrote about designing
a parking system based on sensor networks had attracted a query
from Aashish Dalal, an entrepreneur working on a business plan
for a parking technology company. Little put Dalal in touch with
Thornton. In the fall of 2006, the pair started work on ParkWhiz,
with Thornton overseeing technology and product development.
For the fi rst fi ve years, Dalal and Thornton were the company,
both supporting themselves with other jobs. By their third year
working on ParkWhiz, they were able to take a small salary and
by the fourth year the
company had really taken
off . Today the company’s
22-person team serves
more than 1 million
drivers.
Based in Chicago,
ParkWhiz can support
parking requests at more
than 125 venues and
has booked more than
$10 million in parking
revenue. Orchestrating
Super Bowl parking
since 2010, the company
handles requests near a
number of high-profi le
locations, including
Madison Square Garden,
Wrigley Field and Los
Angeles International
Airport, and has begun to provide access to downtown parking
structures in Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Buoyed
by $2 million in venture capital, ParkWhiz is expanding its reach to
more locations and eventually hopes to integrate its app into GPS or
Internet-enabled dashboards.
“It’s incredibly gratifying to work on something that hundreds of
thousands of people use to make their lives easier,” says Thornton,
who as a teenager spent much of his free time simply trying to make
his family’s computer work better. Inspired by a standout physics
teacher in high school, he initially majored in physics at BU, but his
love for tinkering with technology led him to switch to engineering
in his sophomore year. The following year, Little’s course on sensor
networks impressed on him the many ways technology can be used—
from monitoring bird populations to reserving parking spots—
setting the stage for ParkWhiz.
The College of Engineering made it possible for Thornton not
only to meet his cofounder but also to master engineering chal-
lenges. Professors Little and Min-Chang Lee (ECE) were among
those who pushed him to become a better student and excel in
more diffi cult subjects, such as Introduction to Electronics and
Electrodynamics.
“What impressed me was not only his intelligence and diligence
but also his attitude toward his studies,” Lee recalls. “He was very
enthusiastic about learning these courses.”
“The biggest thing I got from my time at the College of Engi-
neering was a strong sense of process, of taking a series of steps that
lead you to a solution,” Thornton recalls. “I learned how to keep
myself organized and methodically work toward a goal.”
Another benefi t Thornton drew from his time at BU was ongoing
exposure to people pursuing studies in a wide range of disciplines.
“This helped prepare me for the business world, where things
don’t fi t into neat buckets,” he says, “and gave me a large network to
call on when I needed help.”
Now Thornton has given drivers an even larger network that they
can call on when they need help landing parking spots at the ballpark
and other attractions.
Jon Thornton (ECE’06)
PARKWHIZ ENABLES CUSTOMERS TO COMPARE PARKING PRICES, LOCATIONS AND AMENITIES ACROSS THE US VIA THEIR SMARTPHONES OR OVER THE INTERNET AND LOCK IN A SPOT WITH THE CLICK OF A MOUSE. PARKWHIZ THEN PRODUCES AN ELECTRONIC PARKING PASS THAT CUSTOMERS MAY PRINT AT THEIR CONVENIENCE OR DISPLAY ON THEIR SMARTPHONE.
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 29 4/4/14 2:40 PM
30 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
facultyWILSON WONG
RECEIVES NEW INNOVATOR
AWARD
32
JAMES BIRD’S RESEARCH
FEATURED IN THE NY TIMES
33
An estimated 20 to 50 percent of medicines
distributed in developing countries are either
counterfeit or signifi cantly substandard,
resulting in thousands of preventable medical
complications and deaths. To address this
problem, Associate Professor Muhammad
Zaman (BME, MSE) has spent the past
two years developing PharmaCheck, a fast,
portable, user-friendly detector for screening
counterfeit and substandard antimalarials, anti-
biotics and other essential medicines.
Scientifi c American was so impressed with
PharmaCheck and its potential to improve
people’s lives that the magazine featured
the concept behind it—a new approach to
preventing the spread and use of substandard
medicine—as one of “Ten World-Changing
Ideas” in its annual roundup article on proven,
scalable innovations that could dramatically
impact society in the near future. Appearing
in the December issue, the article—which
also features innovations ranging from planes
that snap together to smartphones as thin
as credit cards—lauds PharmaCheck as an
outstanding example of microfl uidic, lab-on-
a-chip technology.
“I am really honored and excited by this
recognition,” said Zaman. “Our funding partners
have been amazingly supportive of our high-risk
approach, and we hope that this recognition and
their ongoing support will enable our team to
help make the world a better and a safer place for
all those who battle deadly diseases.”
PharmaCheck—developed by Zaman and
graduate students Darash Desai (BME), Nga
Ho (BME), Andrea Fernandes (SMG, SPH) and
research scientist Atena Shemiran (BME)—is
simple to operate. The user places a pill into
a small testing box that instantly reports the
amount of an active ingredient found in the pill.
The team’s ultimate goal is to enable users from
pharmacists to regulatory authorities to eff ec-
tively and easily control the quality of medicine
delivered to patients. Toward that end, Zaman
and his collaborators are now pursuing a series
of fi eld studies to test PharmaCheck’s perfor-
mance on antimalarials, antibiotics, utero-
tonics (used to induce labor) and medications
targeting tuberculosis and HIV.
Zaman was also recognized for developing
tools to improve the quality of life, education
and the practice of medicine in the developing
world by Peace Islands Institute (PII), a north-
eastern-US-based think tank promoting educa-
tion, friendship and harmony among peoples
of diverse backgrounds. PII named Zaman as the
recipient of its 2013 Global Education Award.
Zaman’s PharmaCheck Named One of Scientific American’s Ten World-Changing IdeasADVANCES NEW APPROACH TO PREVENTING SPREAD AND USE OF SUBSTANDARD MEDICINES
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Associate Professor Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE)
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 30 4/4/14 2:40 PM
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Professor Emeritus Charles Cantor (BME,
MED), a pioneer in synthetic biology who
once directed the Human Genome Project and
chaired the College’s Biomedical Engineering
Department, has been named a Charter Fellow
of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI),
a high professional distinction that recognizes
academic innovators who have created or facili-
tated outstanding inventions that have made a
tangible impact on society.
The 143 innovators who received the honor
this year represent 94 universities, government
institutions and nonprofi t research organiza-
tions and more than 5,600 US patents. The new
Fellows include nine Nobel Laureates, 69 mem-
bers of the National Academies, fi ve inductees
of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, six recipi-
ents of the US National Medal of Technology and
Innovation, two recipients of the US National
Medal of Science and 26 presidents and senior
leadership of research universities and nonprofi t
research institutes.
“I have always considered innovation to be
the most exciting part of my career,” said Cantor,
who is currently developing biotechnology com-
panies including Sequenom, Inc. and Retrotope.
“It is thrilling that an institution has been
established to honor inventive scientists and
engineers, and I am very pleased to be among
the fi rst people to be elected to the NAI.”
Cantor joins Professors James J. Collins
(BME, MSE, SE), Mark Grinstaff (BME,
Chemistry, MSE) and Theodore Moustakas
(ECE, MSE), who were inducted as NAI Fellows
in 2012, the inaugural year of the Fellowship.
In a career spanning more than fi ve decades,
Cantor has co-authored a seminal three-volume
textbook on biophysical chemistry and the
fi rst genomics textbook, published more than
450 peer-reviewed articles, generated 54
US patents, and received many prestigious
awards and honors, from membership in the
National Academy of Sciences to induction as a
Guggenheim Fellow and American Institute for
Medical and Biological Engineering Fellow. Prior
to joining the BU faculty in 1992, he held posi-
tions at Columbia University and the University
of California, Berkeley. More information about
Cantor’s research can be found on p. 5.
Cantor Named as National Academy of Inventors Charter Fellow
Han Receives Presidential Early Career AwardPresident Obama named Assistant Professor
Xue Han (BME) as one of 102 recipients of the
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and
Engineers, the highest honor the US government
bestows on science and engineering researchers
who are in the early stages of their careers.
Selected for their pursuit of innovative research at
the frontiers of science and technology and their
commitment to community service, awardees
receive a research grant lasting up to fi ve years
and an invitation to attend a White House cer-
emony with the President .
Han was recognized for her innovative
research on developing novel neurotechnologies
using light-sensitive nanoparticles to sense neu-
rons’ cellular environment and to deliver drugs
directly to the brain.
“The PECASE adds another prestigious
award to Dr. Han’s already glowing CV, and is a
clear indication that her research continues to be
recognized at the highest levels,” said Professor
Sol Eisenberg (BME), who heads the BME
Department. “Her work holds the promise of sig-
nifi cant medical breakthroughs in the treatment
of neurological diseases.”
“I am thrilled to have been selected to receive
this award, which will accelerate our eff orts
on neurotechnology development to better
understand and treat brain disorders,” said Han,
whose research in recent years has garnered a
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s
New Innovator Award and recognition as a
Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, Sloan
Research Fellow and Peter Paul Fellow.
Han develops and applies high-precision
genetic, molecular, optical and electrical tools
and other nanotechnologies to study neural
circuits in the brain. By using these novel
neurotechnologies to control and monitor
a selected population of brain cells, she and
her research team seek to identify connec-
tions between neural circuit dynamics and
behavioral pathologies. Establishing such
connections could improve our understanding
of neurological and psychiatric diseases and
lead to new treatments.
Previous Boston University recipients of
the PECASE award include former Associate
Professor Hatice Altug (ECE, MSE, 2010),
Associate Professor Venkatesh Saligrama (ECE,
SE, 2004) and former Assistant Professors
Paul Barber (Biology, 2005) and Joan Walker
(Geography & Environment, 2007).
Assistant Professor Xue Han (BME)
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 31 4/4/14 2:40 PM
32 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
faculty
Assistant Professor Wilson W. Wong (BME)
has received a 2013 National Institutes of
Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator
Award, which supports exceptionally creative,
early-career researchers pursuing highly
innovative projects with the potential to
transform their fi eld of endeavor and bring
about improved health outcomes. Chosen
from hundreds of applicants from across the
US, Wong and other award recipients will
be announced at the High Risk-High Reward
Research Symposium to be held November
18–20 in Bethesda, Maryland.
The award, which provides up to $1.5 million
in funding for fi ve years, will support Wong’s
eff orts to develop the next generation of
personalized smart cancer therapy. His goal is
to take a cancer patient’s immune system cells
and install novel genetic programs to control
when, where and how strongly the engineered
cells should respond to cancer cells.
“I am ecstatic to receive the award,” said
Wong. “This grant will give me the resources
that I need to hire more people, conduct more
studies and complete this project.”
Wong applies synthetic biology to rapidly
and predictably engineer desired properties
in human immune cells to treat diseases.
He is particularly interested in engineering
genetic circuits to improve the effi cacy and
safety of adoptive T-cell therapy, a treatment
for leukemia and related blood cancers—and
potentially other tumors—in which a patient’s
immune system is reprogrammed. The treat-
ment entails removing millions of a patient’s
T-cells (a kind of white blood cell) and
inserting new genes that make it possible for
the T-cells to kill cancer cells. When the modi-
fi ed T-cells are returned to the patient’s veins,
they ideally replicate and kill the cancer.
Wong joins Assistant Professor Xue Han
(BME), who received the award in 2012.
Wilson Wong Receives NIH Director’s New Innovator Award UP TO $1.5M RESEARCH FUNDING FOR FIVE YEARS
Assistant Professor Wilson W. Wong (BME)
In December, Professors W. Clem Karl (ECE,
BME, SE), Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE)
and Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE) were named
as 2014 IEEE Fellows, the highest grade of
membership in the world’s leading professional
association for advancing technology for the
benefi t of society.
The IEEE confers the grade of Fellow
upon individuals with outstanding records of
accomplishment in any of the organization’s
fi elds of interest, which range from aerospace
systems, computers and telecommunications
to biomedical engineering, electric power and
consumer electronics. Less than 0.1 percent
of voting members—the IEEE currently has
400,000 members in 160 countries—are
selected annually for this grade elevation, con-
sidered a major career achievement and presti-
gious honor across the technical community.
Karl was recognized for his contributions to
“statistical signal processing and image recon-
struction.” He has developed several statistical
models for the extraction of information from
diverse data sources in the presence of uncer-
tainty, and applied them in projects that include
automatic target detection and recognition for
synthetic aperture radar; locating oil deposits and
analyzing the earth’s atmosphere; and monitoring
medical conditions using tomography and MRI.
Moustakas was recognized for his contribu-
tions to “the epitaxial growth of nitride semi-
conductors.” He is a trailblazer in molecular
beam epitaxy, a versatile and advanced
thin-fi lm growth technique used to make high-
precision, nitride (nitrogen compound-based)
semiconductor materials used in fi ber-optic,
cellular, satellite and other applications.
Paschalidis was recognized for his contribu-
tions to “the control and optimization of com-
munication and sensor networks, manufacturing
systems and biological systems.” Since joining
the College of Engineering faculty in 1996, he has
developed sophisticated algorithms for every-
thing from a homeland security early warning
sensor network to a next-generation electronic
health care management system.
Vivek Goyal, who became an assistant
professor in the ECE Department in January,
was also named an IEEE Fellow.
Dedicated to the advancement of tech-
nology, the IEEE publishes 30 percent of the
world’s literature in the electrical and elec-
tronics engineering and computer science
fi elds and has developed more than 900 active
industry standards. The association also spon-
sors or co-sponsors nearly 400 international
technical conferences a year.
Three ECE Profs Named as IEEE Fellows KARL, MOUSTAKAS AND PASCHALIDIS RECOGNIZED FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS
(left to right) Professors W. Clem Karl (ECE, BME, SE), Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE) and Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE)
MO
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ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 32 4/4/14 2:40 PM
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 33
NEWS BYTES
› The National Science Foundation
awarded the College of Engineering
and School of Education $1.2 million
to establish the Bringing Engineers
into STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math) Teaching
(BEST) Project. The grant expands
participation in the newly launched
STEM Educator Engineer Program
(STEEP), one of the first programs
in the US enabling undergrads to
obtain both an accredited BS degree
in engineering and an MA degree in
teaching in just five years.
› ENG was named a partner with
100Kin10, a multi-sector network
addressing the national imperative
to train 100,000 STEM teachers by
2021.
› Last summer, the Center for English
Language & Orientation Programs
(CELOP) partnered with the College
of Engineering to offer a Global
Engineering Career Readiness Program,
a customized, four-week English
language and cultural immersion
program designed for international
Master of Engineering students.
› Mechanical Engineering PhD
candidate Matt Adams received a
Whitaker International Fellowship
at the University of Oxford’s
Biomedical Ultrasonics, Biotherapy
and Biopharmaceuticals Laboratory
(BUBBL). The program sends
emerging US leaders in biomedical
engineering to the BUBBL to pursue
an independent research project.
Adams will develop a novel focused
ultrasound system for minimally
invasive thermal ablation of tumors.
› The New York Times featured an
article on research by Assistant
Professor James C. Bird (ME, MSE)
and collaborators at MIT showing that
one can engineer textured surfaces
to reshape a drop as it recoils so that
overall contact time between drop and
surface is significantly reduced. (See
article on p. 7.)
› Assistant Professors Ramesh Jasti (Chemistry, MSE) and Ahmad “Mo” Khalil (BME) received BU
Technology Development’s two
appointments this year as Innovation
Career Development Professor,
which will support their work in
carbon nanotubes and synthetic
biology, respectively.
Khalil was also named as one of the
world’s 20 most promising early
career genomics researchers by
GenomeWeb, a leading publication
in the field. He made GenomeWeb’s
eighth annual Young Investigators
list based on his research advancing
genomics methods to analyze the
behavior of cells and re-engineer
them to perform useful tasks.
› Assistant Professor Jonathan Klamkin (ECE, MSE) was elevated to
the grade of IEEE Senior Member.
› A team of ECE researchers
including Professor Lev Levitin
(also SE), Mark Karpovsky and
alum Ye Wu (MEng’13) received
the Best Technical Paper award at
OPNETWORK 2013, a conference
focused on advancing the state
of application and network
performance management.
› Professor Thomas Little’s (ECE,
SE) research on indoor solid-state
lighting was featured in Optics &
Photonics News, the Optical Society
of America’s monthly news magazine.
› Jarrod Milshtein (MSE,
MS’13) and co-authors Professor
Soumendra Basu (ME, MSE),
Associate Professor Srikanth Gopalan (ME, MSE) and Professor
Uday Pal (ME, MSE) received the
2013 TMS Light Metals Division—
Energy Best Student Paper Award.
Their paper, “A Thermochemical
Study of the W/WO3 System: A
Solar to Fuel Converter for Syngas
Production,” was published in Energy
Technology 2013.
› In July, Assistant Professor Bobak Nazer (ECE, SE) and Professor Michael
Gastpar of the École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland
and the University of California,
Berkeley, received a 2013 Joint Paper
Award at the IEEE International
Symposium on Information Theory in
Istanbul, Turkey. Their paper explores
exploiting the algebraic structure of
interference to achieve higher data
rates in wireless communication.
› Professor Nathan Phillips (CAS,
SE) was featured on an episode of
the local Boston TV news magazine
show Chronicle on Channel 5, WCVB.
Phillips explained how roof space
can be utilized to measure carbon
dioxide and promote sustainability.
› The National Science Foundation
awarded Professor Venkatesh Saligrama (ECE, SE), Professor
David Castañón (ECE, SE) and
Assistant Professor Mac Schwager
(ME, SE) nearly $1 million for a
project that aims to improve sensors
that collect data in transportation,
security and manufacturing
applications. Saligrama also received
a $900,000 grant from the Office of
Naval Research for a separate project
to develop a Google-like search
system for surveillance videos.
› DiscoverE (formerly the National
Engineers Week Foundation)
selected Reno (Tao) Wang (SE,
PhD’13) as one of the New Faces of
Engineering, an award recognizing
outstanding engineers age 30 or
under who have contributed to
projects that significantly impact
society. A senior operations
research developer for Sabre Airline
Solutions, Wang, 30, develops
products for crew management
systems serving more than 20
airlines.
› Associate Professor Muhammad
Zaman (BME, MSE) was selected
as a 2014 Fellow for Science,
Technology and Society at the
Institute of Advanced Study in
Science, Technology and Society
in Graz, Austria, where he will
participate in a series of public
lectures and meetings this summer.
The Institute recognized Zaman for
his work on detecting substandard
drugs. (See article on p. 30.)
— Mark Dwortzan, Rachel Harrington,
Kathrin Havrilla and BU Global
programs
Matt Adams (ME, PhD candidate) received a Whitaker International Fellowship.
Ahmad “Mo” Khalil (BME) (left) and Ramesh Jasti (CAS, MSE) have won Innovation Career Development Professorships. (Photos by Kalman Zabarsky)
James C. Bird (ME, MSE)
Bobak Nazer (ECE, SE)
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 33 4/4/14 2:40 PM
34 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
alumniWE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! SEND YOUR CLASS NOTES SUBMISSIONS TO [email protected] OR VISIT WWW.BU.EDU/ENG/ALUMNI.
Distinguished Alumni Awards Honor Exceptional ENG Grads
In a ceremony held October 25 at the Boston University
Photonics Center, the College of Engineering celebrated
its alumni and announced the 2013 Distinguished Alumni
Awards. Presented by Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen following a
buff et dinner and champagne toast, the awards recognized
individuals who have made signifi cant contributions to their alma
mater, community and profession. Lutchen commended the
recipients for bringing honor to the College through their careers,
their commitment to the highest standards of excellence and
their devotion to the College.
Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen with Dan Ryan and Aaron Ganick (both ECE’10), Anton Papp (EE’90) (middle) and George Savage (BME’81) (right).
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 34 4/4/14 2:41 PM
E N G I N E E R S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 W W W. B U . E D U / E N G 35
Anton Papp (EE’90), vice president for Corporate Development at Teradata, received the Service to Alma Mater award, which hon-ors alumni who have enhanced the College of Engineering’s stature through voluntary service to BU.
At Teradata, Papp oversees, evaluates and executes investments, mergers and acquisitions, and strategy. Prior to joining Teradata, he served as vice president of Corporate Development & Global Alliances at Aprimo and held numerous investment banking positions. A grad-uate of the prestigious US Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN), Papp attended BU on a Naval ROTC scholarship and served as a naval officer and F-14 Tomcat flight instructor. He also earned an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.
Papp serves on the College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board, the ENG West Coast Alumni Leadership Council, and the BU West Coast Regional Campaign Committee. He has been the leading supporter for the ENG/SMG Summer Leadership Institute program and part of the College’s efforts to recruit top undergraduates.
Dan Ryan and Aaron Ganick (both ECE’10), cofounders of the telecommunications company ByteLight, received the Distinguished Young Alumni award, which honors alumni within 10 years of gradu-ation for outstanding service to their profession or community.
A startup that emerged out of the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center at BU, ByteLight has produced a system that’s similar to an indoor GPS. Special overhead LED lights provided by ByteLight
enable your smartphone to bring up location-based information ranging from store coupons to museum exhibit descriptions. See pp. 24–27.
George Savage (BME’81), chief medical officer and cofounder of Proteus Digital Health, and a member of the BU College of Engineering West Coast Advisory Council, received the Service to the Profession award, which honors alumni whose work has significantly contributed to the advancement of their profession and brought them recognition within their field.
Savage has started 10 companies since 1989 as entrepreneur or founding investor, including FemRx (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), CardioRhythm (acquired by Medtronic) and QRx Pharmaceuticals. He holds an MD from Tufts University School of Medicine and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and serves on the boards of Menlo Healthcare Ministry, the Pacific Research Institute and Silent Cal Productions.
At Proteus, Savage 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 health care professionals. The system allows for instantaneous and person-alized treatment and promises to transform the way doctors moni-tor patients’ medicine.
CLASS NOTES
1986Mark Tanzi, BS, Providence, Rhode Island • After working for fi ve years for Raytheon Company in Rhode Island, Mark changed his career path in 1991 by joining Palmer Industries, a small family business specializing in custom fabrication of solid brass architectural hardware and bath fi xtures. He is responsible for design, engineering, operations and general manage-ment of a line of solid brass metal consoles for bathroom vanities. He and his wife and daughters Giuliana Rae, 9, and Angelina Rose, 11, visit BU often. “We follow Terrier hockey passionately!” he says. Contact Mark at [email protected].
1999Mark F. Hodge, MS, Andover, Minnesota • Mark (also GSM’99) is now the president and CEO of Pyng Medical, a company that develops trauma and resuscitation products for critical care personnel around the globe.
2008Jacob Miller, BS, Greensboro, North Caro-lina • Currently working at Weil-McLain, a subsidiary of SPX Corporation, Jacob received a Q3 2013 Innovation Award from SPX’s Inno-vation Council. He was recognized for his
design and project management of an innovative, T-shaped assembly line to manufacture two different product models. The production line’s fl exible design allows for dynamic assembly line balancing to accommodate the boiler industry’s seasonal demand fl uctuations.
2010Michael Koeris, PhD, Natick, Massachu-setts • Michael raised $11M series B equity fi nancing for Sample6 Technologies, a syn-thetic biology startup that’s developing inte-grated systems to quickly and easily detect harmful bacteria in the food, health care and other industries. In 2014 Sample6 plans to introduce a synthetic biology-based diagnos-tic tool for food safety testing. Michael is a co-founder and COO of the company, which he started out of Professor James J. Collins’s (BME, MSE, SE) lab.
2011David Lessard, BS, Los Angeles, Califor-nia • David has been working at Praxair as a plant engineer since graduation. In 2013 he was promoted to production manager of the company’s Los Angeles plant.
PASSINGS
Want to earn an ENG T-shirt? Send your class notes submissions to [email protected] or visit www.bu.edu/eng/alumni. Contributors of all published notes receive a red BU Engineering T-shirt!
James H. Turcotte (’49), Wethersfi eld, CTRussell T. Galiano (‘52), North Andover, MAKenneth R. Bostrom (’54), Bethel, VTGilette B. Knight (’55), Andover, MAPatrick A. Kearney (’59), Norwell, MAMartin B. Cutler (’60), New York, NYGlenn A. Dawson (’63), Falmouth, MAEdwin More (’63), West Ossipee, NHRobert B. Fishman (’67), West Hartford, CTCharles S. Wong (’68), Cholon, Viet NamEdward M. Govoni (’69), Mashpee, MAJames J. Krupa (’86), Garden City, NYPatrick J. Callery (’94), Goleta, CA
ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 35 4/4/14 2:41 PM
36 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
GORDON WALSH (ENG MGMT’67, MENG’68, GSM’71), KAREN CULLAS
(BME’77) AND RUTH A. MACFARLANE HUNTER (AERO’64, GSM’86) LAURA APPLETON, EVAN APPLETON (BME’10, BIOINFORMATICS’12)
AND ENG POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW ERNST OBERORTNER
An EPIC Event College of Engineering alumni, faculty, relatives and friends put on their “hard hats” for a behind-the-scenes, pre-construction tour of the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) during BU Alumni Weekend in October.
GREGG ADKIN (EE’86), ANTON PAPP (EE’90) AND DEAN KENNETH R.
LUTCHEN
DAVID HUBBARD (EE, MFG’09, LAW’14), ELIO NICOLOSI (AERO’04),
PROFESSOR TED DEWINTER (ME) AND MICHELLE NICOLOSI
PH
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OS
BY
DA
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Generous gifts from alumni and friends to the Engineering Annual Fund give students valuable, outside-the-classroom experiences beyond what tuition alone can support. The Summer Term Alumni Research Scholars (STARS) Program, which provides summer housing to students engaged in research in faculty labs, is one way the Engineering Annual Fund enriches the educational experience.
To continue helping students like Caitlin, visit www.bu.edu/eng/alumni and make your gift to the Engineering Annual Fund today.
The Engineering Annual FundHelping Students Gain Real-World Experience
“Over the summer, I worked on the sensor network communication system for
Boston University’s ANDESITE satellite project with Professor Theodore Fritz
as part of a competition among 10 universities to develop a unique satellite
mission. I’m now serving as the project’s Command and Data Handling
subsystem leader.
Thanks to STARS, I have developed my leadership and engineering skills,
learning to troubleshoot potential problems and delegate tasks to reach
critical milestones. Through my work last summer and beyond, I hope to
help our team win the competition and receive continued funding to
complete and launch ANDESITE.”
—Caitlin Manes (ECE’16)
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4 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
To learn more, visit www.bu.edu/eng.
Muhammad ZamanPhD, University of Chicago
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Named by Scientifi c American as innovator behind one of
ten “World-Changing Ideas”
“We are engineering new experimental and computational technologies
for high-value health care problems in both the developing and devel-
oped worlds. Our work ranges from probing the mechanisms of cancer
metastasis to developing robust, cheap, portable and user-friendly diag-
nostics and analysis toolkits to address global health challenges. Among
the global health technologies we’re advancing are devices to detect
counterfeit drugs, preserve biological reagents used in diagnostic tests,
and provide other in-demand health care solutions targeting the specifi c
needs of resource-limited countries.
Boston University’s academic rigor, interdisciplinary culture and abun-
dance of world leaders in engineering, sciences, public health and policy
have enabled me to pursue complex, multidisciplinary and high-impact
questions that go beyond traditional engineering. The rich academic
culture and resources at BU in general and the College of Engineering in
particular empower my students and me to respond to those questions,
leading not only to signifi cant advances in science and engineering but
also to meaningful improvements in the quality of life for people around
the world.”
To learn more, visit www.bu.edu/eng. CY
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