engineer spring 2014

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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


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 1

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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

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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

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2010

1983

2003

ENG_MagSP14_P4.indd 1 4/4/14 2:34 PM


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

www.twitter.com/BUCollegeofENG

www.youtube.com/BUCollegeofENG

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



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.



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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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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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.”


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


CCINES M TOBACCO


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


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.


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?”


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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.


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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.



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

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Continued on page 19


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)



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)



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

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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.


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



RUTH HUNTER ’64A TRUE STORY OF NOVEL IDEAS

bY mARk DwORTzAN

Eng inEEr S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 w w w. B U . E d U / E N G 21

In the coming decades, long-distance travelers

may have the opportunity to board a new kind of

aircraft that soars to and from low-earth orbit,

dramatically reducing flight times—and poten-

tially cutting a six-hour trip between New York

and London to an hour and fifteen minutes. In

a report to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Office of Commercial Space Transportation published

in 2010, Ruth A. MacFarlane Hunter (Aero’64, GSM’86)

explored how to integrate such aircraft into rapidly

evolving US and international air traffic control systems,

laying the groundwork for this novel form of air travel to

operate as safely and nondisruptively as possible.

The report is but one of dozens of groundbreaking,

comprehensive analyses that she has prepared over the

past 39 years as an engineer at the US Department of

Transportation’s Volpe Center, which aims to improve

the nation’s transportation infrastructure by antici-

pating and solving a wide range of emerging challenges

and advancing innovations across all transportation

modes, while maintaining safety standards.

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.



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.


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ByteLight CEO Daniel Ryan (ECE’10)


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




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.

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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.

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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.”


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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.



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)



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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)



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)

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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)



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).



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



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

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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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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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NONPROFITUS POSTAGEPAIDBOSTON MAPERMIT NO. 1839


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