ENGineer magazine - spring 2021 by Boston University College of Engineering

SPRING 2021 INSIDE AN APP EASES AID CONVERGING TO MEET TODAY’S CHALLENGES

THE MAGAZINE OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

S R A T S P U T STAR TWO ENG ALUMNI ARE ON FORBES’ LIST OF TOP YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

ENG BY THE NUMBERS

MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

RANK IN RESEARCH EXPENDITURES PER FACULTY MEMBER ($740,000) AMONG PRIVATE ENGINEERING SCHOOLS

RANK AMONG ALL 210 ENGINEERING GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN THE US

RANK AMONG PRIVATE GRADUATE ENGINEERING PROGRAMS IN THE US

(U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT)

124

TENURED OR TENURE-TRACK FACULTY MEMBERS

RESEARCH CENTERS AND INSTITUTES

19,615 LIVING ALUMNI

2 BU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

PHOTOGRAPH BUILDING BY ICONS FROM NOUN PROJECT. LEFT: SHASHANK SINGH; RIGHT: BAYU WIBOWO

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contents

ENGINEER MAGAZINE SPRING 2021

14 START-UP STARS PHOTOGRAPHY: SANIYA SHAH BY MAMADI DOUMBOUYA AND EDUARDO PORTET BY MITCH TOBIAS; LIZY FLAGG BY CYDNEY SCOTT; BÉLA SUKI BY JACKIE RICCIARDI

TWO ENG ALUMNI ARE ON FORBES’ LIST OF TOP YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

DEPARTMENTS 3 Upfront 23 Research

20 AN APP EASES AID

2020 GRAD FIGHTING WASTE AND FOOD INSECURITY

COVER: SANIYA SHAH BY MAMADI DOUMBOUYA AND EDUARDO PORTET BY MITCH TOBIAS

ENGINEER SPRING 2021

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message from the dean

BY DEAN KENNETH R. LUTCHEN

In the fall, when we were several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote here that while the nation’s capacity to successfully fight the pandemic was being diminished by anti-science thinking, it was science and technology that would ultimately get us out of the pandemic. Now, a year after the outbreak, science and technology have, indeed, proven to be the heroes. But there are lessons to be learned from the pandemic— and our response to it—that can guide us as we look to the future. For one, the sudden emergence and rapid global spread of COVID-19 have taught us that this is unlikely to be the last biological emergency we will face. The disease went from nonexistent to fullscale pandemic in a few short months, a scope and pace unprecedented in human history. It’s clear that a biological threat has the potential to become a rapid danger to human life and function on the planet without regard to country of citizenship or economic status.

2 BU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Bringing together expertise from multiple disciplines within and outside of engineering offers us the fastest, most efficient and most successful path to accelerate the development of effective and scalable solutions to critical problems.

to intercept a novel pathogen before it becomes rampant. This will require a range of engineers working with bioscientists to develop sensors, devise nanolevel testing and delivery systems and manipulate genes and proteins to react to specific pathogens. We will need robotic systems to process millions of tests each day. We will need manufacturing technology to produce a remedy at a massive scale, and a distribution system that is fast and secure from threats like cyberattacks. We will also need expertise from medicine, public health and other fields that will give us the range of perspectives on what we need to do to prepare for a rapid response to the next emergency and converge on the solution. As you can read on the next pages, this kind of convergent approach to addressing society’s important problems will be central to the College of Engineering’s future. I believe that bringing together expertise from multiple disciplines within and outside of engineering offers us the fastest, most efficient and most successful path to accelerate the development of effective and scalable solutions to critical problems. COVID-19 is an urgent problem that we hope is on track to being solved in the near term, but there are other, longer-term and important problems facing society that will require the kinds of engineers we have working and learning at Boston University.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CONOR DOHERTY

Lessons Learned

The encouraging news is that we’ve also learned we have the capacity to meet such threats. The speed with which vaccines were developed was unprecedented; a process that typically takes several years was largely completed in less than a year. We now see that extraordinary power of marshaling our nation’s innovative biomedical science and engineering firepower. This success reminds us of the remarkable pivoting of our automobile industry to manufacture tanks and planes rapidly during World War II. But, unlike then, our biotechnology industry had to invent from scratch new ways to detect and fight the virus and to do so at an unimaginable manufactural scale. When challenged, our biomedical scientific and engineering communities responded heroically. As vaccine distribution efforts ramp up, policymakers are looking at how we can prepare for the next biological emergency. In my recent visit to Capitol Hill with the Engineering Deans Institute, I heard of several emerging initiatives. For example, forming a national network of certified laboratories that would develop off-the-shelf technologies and stand by to respond to the next outbreak. The idea has merit, but we need to be wary of a large investment up front creating “ready-to-go” facilities that would have little to do until the next emergency happens. A better option might be to create a network of laboratories or centers for continuous research and technology development at the intersection of understanding and manipulating the immune system, with an eye toward rapidly translating innovations to respond to the next threat. These efforts should be aimed at increasingly innovating low-cost, reliable new virus detection and testing methods, and the rapid engineering of manufacturable vaccine to meet any new threat. An ever-increasing knowledge of, and ability to interact with, the immune system should drive this effort. We want

upfront

Converging to Meet Today’s Challenges THE COLLEGE EMBARKS ON A BOLD NEW STRATEGY TO SOLVE SOME OF SOCIETY’S MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS

t a time when meeting society’s challenges means bringing together expertise from many fields, the College of Engineering is embarking on a bold new strategy that converges multiple disciplines to address some of the most critical problems facing society. This formalized approach to addressing broad, interdisciplinary challenges makes the college unique among the nation’s engineering schools. “The Boston University College of Engineering has long enjoyed an unbounded culture of

FIRST SUKKAR PROFESSOR

INCLUSION AND THE SOCIETAL ENGINEER

collaboration among researchers from multiple departments within the college and throughout the University,” says Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen. “Over the next 10 years, we will leverage and scale that strength in a new structure that emphasizes solving some of society’s most pressing challenges. This will impact every facet of the college’s mission, from research to education to our partnerships with industry.” The college has already begun implementing the plan by opening three junior faculty searches that aim to attract scholars interested in this new approach, and seeking an associate dean who will foster their professional growth. Going forward, approximately one-third of the college’s annual faculty searches will seek researchers targeting one or more of six convergent themes: synthetic biology and tissue engineering; intelligent, autonomous and secure systems; neuroscience and neuroengineering; materials by design; photonics and optical systems; and energy and sustainability.

This formalized approach to addressing broad, interdisciplinary challenges makes the college unique among the nation’s engineering schools.

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upfront

4 BU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Morgan Named First Sukkar Professor

ollege of Engineering alumnus Malek Sukkar (MFG’92) has established an endowed professorship in honor of his father, a lifelong innovator whose work is aimed at improving society. Professor Elise Morgan (ME, BME, MSE), a leading researcher on how mechanical forces affect biological tissue, has been named the first Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation. A University trustee and a member of the University’s International Advisory Board, Malek Sukkar is a member of the Strategic Oversight Planning Committee in the College of Engineering and served on the recently concluded capital campaign’s steering committee. He is the CEO of Averda International, a global waste management company founded by his father. “My father is an engineer’s engineer,” says Malek. “He’s now in the Congo devising a new hydroponic system that uses as little water as possible and with minimal need for climate control. I wanted to create a professorship that mimics that kind of systems thinking, is interdisciplinary and improves our quality of life, much like my father.” Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen says that the Sukkar Professorship marks a major milestone in the development of the college, which is only 57 years old and has a much smaller alumni body than many of its peers. “This is our first named, endowed professorship established through philanthropy,” he notes. “It reflects a capacity to attract and retain the very best researchers, academicians and teachers, and it rapidly elevates the college’s reputation and excellence.” Morgan, who is also the college’s associate dean for Research and Faculty Development and director of the Center for Multiscale & Translational Mechanobiology, conducts research in biomechanics and mechanobiology. She uses methods from

Professor Elise Morgan (ME, BME, MSE)

engineering mechanics, materials science, and cell and molecular biology to investigate how mechanical forces and displacements contribute to the development, adaptation, degeneration and regeneration of bone and cartilage. Through her research, Morgan hopes to gain insight into causes and potential treatments for diseases or conditions such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and impaired bone healing. Recently, she has been working on the biologically inspired design of additive manufacturing structures that mimic the microstructure of bone. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, associate editor of the Journal of Biomechanics, a member of the board of directors of the Orthopedic Research Society and former chair of the National Institutes of Health Study Sections. Morgan has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and nearly 9,000 citations. “Dr. Morgan’s research intersects mechanics, materials and bioengineering—

PHOTOGRAPH BY SIMON SIMARD

Success in each of these areas will rely on researchers from diverse fields converging and innovating solutions. For example, synthetic biology draws not only biomedical engineers, but also researchers in computing and data science, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, nanotechnology and material science. Each has a contribution to make to solving problems like antibiotic resistance, 3D printing personalized tissue to repair damage from diseases like heart attacks and creating implantable biological sensors, among others. “Funding agencies have been emphasizing convergent research to solve really important problems for several years now, but engineering schools haven’t restructured to take advantage of convergence. We have,” Lutchen says. “We are in a unique position to leverage our longstanding culture of collaboration across disciplines to propel excellence in engineering research and education.” Two of the current assistant professor searches are seeking researchers in the areas of synthetic biology, tissue engineering and mechanobiology, with emphases on predictive, digital and personalized medicine, and cellular engineering and manufacturing. The third search is in the area of intelligent, autonomous and secure systems, specifically robotics and autonomous systems with an emphasis on machine learning. These faculty members are likely to have appointments in multiple departments and will seek collaboration with groups of researchers to solve societal challenges at the convergence of multiple fields. The college will create a new position— associate dean for research and faculty development—to support and mentor convergent faculty and evaluate the impact of the selected convergent themes. This associate dean will coordinate with the departments to bolster collaboration. The concept of convergence will extend beyond research, says Lutchen. The college will further integrate these cross-disciplinary areas into the curriculum and seek out multidimensional relationships with industry, all while creating a culture of impactful inclusion. —MICHAEL SEELE

MORGAN HAS MORE THAN

100

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS AND NEARLY

9,000 CITATIONS

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSH ANDRUS

specifically orthopedics—with a clear eye on translating her work to clinical practice,” Lutchen says, noting that her appointment was recommended by a faculty review committee. “In addition, she is one of our most talented, dedicated and innovative teachers.” “I am grateful for this huge honor,” Morgan says. “This professorship opens up some exciting possibilities for our research that are really groundbreaking. It gives my group the resources to pursue our most ambitious goals.”—MICHAEL SEELE

Professor Joyce Wong (BME, MSE, MED)

Wong Elected National Academy of Inventors Fellow

rofessor Joyce Wong (BME, MSE, MED) traces her path to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) from a “boot camp” workshop she attended in 2015 for the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps program (I-Corps). Already an accomplished researcher, Wong was exposed to the idea of thinking about translation from the outset of a research project, and she learned about all the things that go into commercializing an innovation that don’t necessarily involve engineering. That approach has resulted in three issued patents in the past year, with a few more pending. Whether innovating COVID-19 negative pressure isolation tents for hospitals, devising a way to image and treat abdominal surgical adhesions, or creating a method to enhance tissue engineering, Wong has adopted a mindset of innovation that has earned her election to the National Academy of Inventors’ 2020 class of fellows. She will be formally inducted at a ceremony in June. Wong says the I-Corps program aims to help researchers bring innovation to the marketplace. While well versed in their own technical innovations, researchers often lack the entrepreneurial skills needed to bring them to market. The I-Corps program exposes them to business concepts like identifying user needs through interviewing stakeholders, estimating revenue streams, seeking funding beyond grants and considering government regulatory requirements. “I feel like I’ve been reliving I-Corps in this time of COVID,” Wong says. In the spring, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to overwhelm hospitals, her cousin, an emergency room doctor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told her about the trouble healthcare workers were having

getting personal protective equipment (PPE). They got to thinking about flipping the PPE; instead of healthcare workers wearing the equipment, why not design a device that would isolate a COVID patient’s infection from the hospital staff? Drawing on expertise from Master Lecturer Enrique Gutierrez-Wing (ME), Associate Professor J. Gregory McDaniel (ME, MSE), Instructor Aleks Zosuls (BME) and others, they began developing a prototype of a negatively pressurized respiratory isolation box that would prevent a patient’s exhaled air from entering the room. They are continuing work on the concept. She is also working on a noninvasive way to image and treat abdominal surgical adhesions, bands of tissue that often form after surgery and pull organs into abnormal positions. Current imaging technologies like ultrasound can’t see these adhesions, so Wong is designing microbubbles that bind to the adhesions and show up on an ultrasound. She is now working on a treatment method. Wong is also developing a degradable scaffold that allows biomedical engineers to build multilayered pediatric blood vessel tissues and is working on unique nanoparticles that could isolate rare immune cells to treat cancer. More recently, she has begun applying these engineering approaches to women’s reproductive health. “I’m excited by this honor,” she says. “I’m grateful for my laboratory trainees—past and present—and the support from BU and my colleagues, especially the Office of Research, the NSF, the Office of Technology Development, the College of Engineering, and the Office of Industry Engagement.” Wong is now the seventh ENG faculty member inducted into the NAI. The others include University President Robert Brown, Distinguished Professor of Photonics and Optoelectronics Emeritus Theodore Moustakas, Distinguished Professor of Translational Research Mark Grinstaff (BME, MSE, Chemistry, MED), Professor David Bishop (ECE, MSE, ME, BME, Physics) and Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE, BME, ECE) and Professor Vinod Sarin (ME, MSE). ENGINEER SPRING 2021

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BU Honors Mertz as 2020 Innovator of the Year AN OPTICAL PIONEER WHOSE PROLIFIC INNOVATIONS HAVE ADVANCED MICROSCOPY BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS

JEROME MERTZ

6 22

ISSUED PATENTS

NEW INVENTIONS WHILE AT BU

How did you first get interested in optics and microscopy? What drew you to the world of technology that allows humans to see what the naked eye cannot? Both my parents were trained in optics, and so there were optics books all over the house when I grew up. It was pretty inevitable. As for why microscopy in particular, my dad was an astronomer and liked to look at small things through a telescope. I just settled with looking at small things through a microscope. Can you describe your innovation process? Where do you get inspiration for designing new optical technologies? Honestly, it’s pretty random. It usually comes from following up on something I don’t understand, meaning there’s a lot to follow up on. 6 BU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Jerome Mertz (BME, ECE)

Is there an invention that you’re particularly proud of? If so, why? What problem did it solve and how did solving that problem improve our understanding of biology (or something else)? I can’t say I’m more proud of any one invention over another. In fact, the invention itself is usually a letdown, and I Associate Professor Ahmad ‘Mo’ Khalil (BME) rarely think about it when it’s over. It’s the process of getting there that’s interesting to me. As for improving our understanding of biology, most of what I’ve worked on is the development of better imaging tools. For example, biologists no longer settle for simple 2D images of their samples. They want 3D volumetric images, in thick tissue and at high speeds. These are some of the tools my lab has been developing. What challenges in optics or microscopy are you currently working on solving? Right now, my favorite challenge is translating what I know in optics into ultrasound imaging, which I’ve never worked on before. It’s great. I feel like a kid in a toy

store. I have to thank Tom Bifano and the BU Photonics Center for that possibility. What advice do you have for early career scientists who have dreams of translating new technologies out of the lab? What is the key to staying creative and identifying solutions that will attract commercial interest? I could say something trite about following your dream, but I won’t. The truth is much more prosaic. The key to being creative is to have a deep understanding of what you’re working on to the point that it becomes intuitive. Without intuition, there can be no creativity. And unfortunately, at least for me, the intuition comes only after a lot of hard work. There’s no cutting corners. When you aren’t in the lab, how do you enjoy spending your time? What are some of your favorite pastimes, hobbies or interests? Well, there’s before and after COVID. Before COVID, it was the usual stuff—reading, hiking, swimming, rollerblading, etc. Since COVID, it’s been a lot of working with my wife to keep the kids sane. —KAT J. MCALPINE

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACKIE RICCIARDI

erome Mertz (BME, ECE) holds six issued patents for technologies that have greatly advanced microscopic imaging quality and capabilities. Some of his inventions—he’s disclosed 22 new ones during his time so far at BU—have made it easier and faster to get better images of thick breast, heart and brain tissue, more clearly illuminating for clinicians what is happening inside the human body. Other technologies Mertz (who is also a professor of physics in the College of Arts & Sciences) invented have sped up microscopic imaging processes of tissues or other materials by up to 16 or 20 times. For his pioneering work, he’s been named BU’s 2020 Innovator of the Year, an honor bestowed annually by BU’s Technology Development office.

Klapperich and Pal Named AAAS Fellows

TOP PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL D. SPENCER; BOTTOM: VERNON DOUCETTE

wo College of Engineering faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE, ME) and Professor Uday Pal (ME, MSE) were selected for extraordinary achievements in their fields by the AAAS Council. The nonprofit organization publishes the journal Science, among others. Klapperich, who is also director of the Precision Diagnostics Center, was cited “for distinguished contributions to the field of biomedical engineering, particularly the development of integrated microsystems for point-of-care diagnosis of disease for global and women’s health,” according to an AAAS announcement. Pal was cited for “pioneering work providing novel materials-based solutions in the field of green engineering as applied to energy conversion and primary production of materials.” While recently Klapperich has been better known to the BU community for building the University’s COVID-19 testing lab, for several years she has been pioneering portable molecular diagnostics. These “point-of-care” kits would be as easy to use as home pregnancy tests, but are aimed at detecting sexually transmitted infections, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea and human papillomavirus (HPV)—a marker for cervical cancer risk. Klapperich and her colleagues have also begun work on a wearable device that would monitor hormones such as progesterone in real time. Should they be translated to the market, as Klapperich hopes, such portable kits would make life easier for women in the US, as well as cut costs by obviating the need for multiple trips to a clinic. In developing countries, especially in rural areas where clinics are few and far between, this tech-

nology could be more than a convenience— it could save thousands of lives. “Our mission as a laboratory is really to take a step back and think about women’s health more broadly,” says Klapperich, “and to be thoughtful about engineering solutions that include diverse perspectives and are informed by evidence-based medicine.” She calls the AAAS honor “a good surprise in a terrible year” and is looking forward to taking a more active part in the group’s communication and education efforts. “If the last four years have taught us anything,” she notes, “it’s that the voices of scientists need to be amplified—for the good of everyone, for environmental and health reasons.” Director of the Materials Laboratory for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, Pal is “honored and delighted to be included among this distinguished group of scholars.” “I am also humbled that the broader scientific community, as represented by AAAS, have recognized the many years of work that my students, postdoctoral fellows and other collaborators have done in the area of green engineering,” he says. Pal’s lab is experimenting with a solid-state electrochemical device that can convert the chemical energy in hydrogen to electrical energy far more efficiently than gas turbines do, while generating only water vapor as the byproduct. His group is also working on storing energy in metals, such as in powdered aluminum. “One could simply oxidize the metal powder and generate large amounts of thermal energy,” he explains. “The oxide can subsequently be reduced employing

Because of the intermittent nature of wind, sunlight and water flow, Pal believes that energy storage is as much a key to a sustainable future as the pursuit of those renewables.

renewable electrical energy to regenerate the metal powder, releasing the oxygen back into the environment.” Because of the intermittent nature of wind, sunlight and water flow, Pal believes that energy storage is as much a key to a sustainable future as the pursuit of those renewables. “I hope we stop pursuing fossil fuels not

Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE, ME)

Uday Pal (ME, MSE)

simply because we run out of them,” he says, “but rather because we have found better and cleaner ways to generate and store energy.” AAAS fellows among ENG faculty include Professor Joyce Wong (BME, MSE, MED), Professor Roscoe Giles (ECE), Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE), Professor Emeritus Temple Smith (BME) and also former ENG Dean David Campbell. —PATRICK L. KENNEDY ENGINEER SPRING 2021

BU.EDU/ENG

upfront Students working in the Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center (BTEC) in early 2020.

Bioengineering Center Advancing Partnerships with Industry

8 BU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

According to Diane Joseph-McCarthy, BTEC’s executive director, six sponsor companies from the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical tech sectors have joined the center’s advisory board since it opened last year. Recently, they participated in an inaugural virtual meeting where students showed video overviews of projects executed in BTEC, and faculty presented on their research. “Each company discussed what they see as critical for students to know,” says Joseph-McCarthy. “They want students to be product- and impact-focused, and to be able to frame a problem statement and execute it. They want engineers who can work well in teams to address complex problems involving convergent science.” The companies—Philips, Medtronic, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda—were represented by their senior research and development executives at the event. Joseph-McCarthy, who is also a professor of the practice in BME, said they were interested in gaining insight into research going on in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and shaping the education of the biomedical engineers of tomorrow. The five-minute student video presentations included undergraduates

discussing their summer internships in BTEC and the work of a master’s candidate on 3D-bioprinting. Board members also heard about faculty research in each of three areas on which BTEC was designed to focus. Associate Professor Mary Dunlop (BME) discussed her work related to molecular, cellular and tissue engineering; Associate Professor Darren Roblyer (BME, ECE) covered biosensors and instrumentation; and Associate Professor James Galagan (BME, Microbiology) presented his work related to digital and predictive medicine. “They were all very well received,” Joseph-McCarthy says. “Some board members have followed up with faculty and discussed possible future collaborations.” Extending beyond their interest in faculty, companies have actively provided feedback on what contemporary biomedical engineering education should cover. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science and real-world applications of biomedical engineering technology are recurring themes. They are also engaging students directly, with at least two companies sponsoring senior design projects this year, and others likely to follow. — MICHAEL SEELE

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS MCINTOSH

he College of Engineering recognizes that we have entered an era that encourages, more than ever before, mutually beneficial partnerships between biomedical industry and academia. Ideally, companies can align with academic partners along three key axes: technology translation; corporate-university research; and the development of a highly skilled workforce. The Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center (BTEC) was designed to build corporate partnerships along all three axes for the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors, and as a place where biomedical education is transformed by hands-on learning and guidance from industry. It’s the biotech counterpart to the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC), a makerspace with a focus on mechanical engineering. The center is part of the College of Engineering’s strategic plan to build multidimensional partnerships with industry. BTEC is a 5,000-square-foot, hands-on space with a Cellular and Tissue Engineering Facility, a Bioinstrumentation and BioSensor Facility, and the eClinicalWorks Digital and Predictive Medicine Suite. It is designed to support hands-on educational components at the intersection of technology, data, biology and medicine; to support student open-innovation for biomedical applications; and to facilitate deep partnerships with industry—including industry-mentored student projects—that are made through an extraordinary advisory board made up of leaders in the biotech and medtech industries. Board companies offer financial support to BTEC and gain early insights into faculty research and activities, while also offering explicit input on what skill sets will provide the most value for entry-level bioengineers.

Arrow Electronics Joins EPIC Advisory Board

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL D. SPENCER

rrow Electronics has joined the Engineering Product Innovation Center’s (EPIC) Corporate Advisory Board, providing EPIC with generous financial support, donations of materials and services and an advisory program for students and members of the BU community engaged in innovation. The partnership—which involves Arrow subsidiaries including ArrowPlus, SiliconExpert and AspenCore—will give EPIC students, faculty and staff greater access to important Arrow parts and services used by innovators across campus. A global provider of products, services and solutions, Arrow Electronics guides innovation forward for over 175,000 of the world’s leading manufacturers of technology used in homes, business and daily life. Arrow aggregates electronic components and enterprise computing solutions for customers and suppliers in industrial and commercial markets, maintaining a worldwide network of more than 336 locations. At EPIC, one of the first and largest of makerspaces housed at a US engineering school, members of the BU community can learn the skills necessary to design and build their own creations and gain valuable hands-on experience in design, prototyping and small-scale manufacturing. EPIC is an integral part of a strong overall engineering education for all College of Engineering undergraduates. EPIC is aligned with the college’s mission to create Societal Engineers who are prepared to step up to the ever-growing need in the US and abroad for industry leaders who understand how to develop and manufacture innovative new products in a global environment. A 15,000-square-foot makerspace with cutting-edge facilities and equipment, a special curriculum and access

Arrow Electronics guides innovation forward for over 175,000 of the world’s leading manufacturers of technology used in homes, business and daily life.

to seasoned practitioners, EPIC goes beyond the basic manufacturing research orientation of most university centers. The center is open to all BU students, regardless of major, offering valuable training on the entire range of skill sets vital to product innovation—design, prototyping, manufacturing and life-cycle management. The college has transformed its curriculum so students learn the entire innovation process—from concept to design to production to deployment—and EPIC is the centerpiece of this transformation. While

other engineering schools have taken steps to prepare their students for advanced manufacturing, ENG is unique in how it has transformed the entire engineering curriculum, enabled by modern technology and software infrastructure, through a partnership with regional industries. While EPIC boasts a CAD studio, demonstration areas, fabrication facilities, materials testing, project management software, 3D printers, robotics and laser processing, it is not built to remain static but rather has been designed so equipment can be continually updated and reconfigured within the center. EPIC is funded through the University, ENG alumni and friends, and regional industry. Representatives from each principal industry sponsor—Arrow, GE Aviation, P&G, PTC, Schlumberger and Rolls-Royce—sit on the EPIC Advisory Board, which offers suggestions on how the undergraduate curriculum can best prepare students for employment in the years ahead. Other corporations providing direct financial support include Ametek, Buehler, Garlock, Stanley Black & Decker, Teledyne DALSA and Peterbilt.

Sparks fly at the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC). Arrow Electronics has joined the center’s Corporate Advisory Board.

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upfront

Webinar Introduces Freshmen to Inclusion, Societal Engineer Principles A PANEL OF EXPERTS DISCUSSES HOW DIVERSITY HELPS BUSINESSES THRIVE

s freshmen, all engineering students are required to take the EK 100 course, which introduces them to the field of engineering through lectures and seminars. This course not only teaches students about different fields of engineering, but also helps them gain a better understanding of the ethical responsibilities of being an engineer, which is part of the foundation of the Societal Engineer. A new lecture called Inclusion Drives Innovation was included this year, hosted by Assistant Dean for Outreach & Diversity Wynter Duncanson (BME). The webinar featured speakers Bahja Johnson, director of Customer Belonging and cofounder of the Color Proud Council at Gap Inc.; Jenny Gruber (’99), cross-program integration lead for the Human Landing System at NASA Johnson Space Center; Anastacia Awad, director and head of Diversity & Inclusion at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research; Kameelah Benjamin-Fuller, vice president, chief diversity officer and CSR lead at Parametric Technology Corporation; and Peter Cocolis (’64), retired executive in business development and government relations for the Boeing Company. Speakers discussed when and how they were introduced to diversity and inclusion as business principles, how they see them as vital business tools, and how they’ve integrated them in practice. Diversity and inclusion are driving principles in the College of Engineering’s Societal Engineer concept, established by Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen in 2008 and supported by two pillars: advancing quality of life and moving society forward. At its core, the Societal Engineer is someone who uses an engineering education to

10 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

build a better world through teamwork and innovation. Awad noted that the principles of diversity and inclusion aren’t only for the employee side of business. “Diversity and inclusion are important not just in the teams we build, but also in the way we make drugs,” she said. “We have to think about how people process the drugs we make and make sure that we recruit genetically diverse clinical trial participants.” Awad noted that even algorithms and machine learning techniques have bias; code can be neutral, but data and the developers who wrote the code may not be. The healthcare system utilizes algorithms for everything from calculating insurance premiums to assessing patient

Diversity and inclusion are driving principles in the College of Engineering’s Societal Engineer concept.

risk factors, and the biases in those codes exacerbate the already wide divide in healthcare access and quality along racial lines. By looking to make sure business practices are also regularly evaluating how implicit biases affect outcomes, organiza-

tions can begin to create a more equitable society. Johnson and Gruber spoke on how these principles also apply to creating an equitable working environment. “At NASA we are solving extremely difficult problems every day. Right now, my mission is taking a team to the south pole of the Moon,” said Gruber. “To do that, we have to have a diverse set of people, and NASA’s culture has consistently been to respect the dissenting position in a room.” Gruber related that after her team has met and decided on how to move forward on a particular issue, she asks the room why they shouldn’t

Johnson and Gruber spoke on how these principles also apply to creating an equitable working environment.

do it that way, and occasionally the team changes its entire strategy based on the responses. “We need to recruit and retain the best and the brightest, and create not only a safe place, but also a place where people can be heard,” she said. “Innovation requires that you feel safe to fail—and safe to take a risk.” Johnson also touched on this subject when she spoke of, at times, being the only woman of color in a room and feeling compelled to make her voice heard. “If I’m not bringing myself to the table, then we are leaving customers outside,” she said.

Two years ago, Johnson helped launch Banana Republic’s True Hues Collection, which introduced basic wardrobe staples in nudes of all colors in an effort to redefine what nude meant. While deciding on the range of colors to produce, the design team struggled over whether to include a very dark brown—almost black—color, and were going to scrap it because they didn’t view the shade as necessary. Johnson told the team that she knew people with that skin tone, and they must include it. If she hadn’t spoken up, they would quite possibly have lost those potential customers. While speakers came from different backgrounds and industries, all agreed that diversity and inclusion aren’t just instrumental to hiring, but need to be continuously implemented in all aspects of business in order to have thriving, innovative employees who contribute to organizational strategic goals. In conclusion, Johnson said, “Engineers are creating solutions to problems, and if you think about that population as bigger, the products will have more longevity, moving forward by broadening the aperture.”

While speakers came from different backgrounds and industries, all agreed that diversity and inclusion should be implemented in all aspects of business.

— LIZ SHEELEY

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upfront

STUDENTS & COMPANIES ARE EAGER TO PARTICIPATE

tart a new master’s degree program, put together a curriculum and recruit students less than a year before classes begin. Then, add in a global pandemic that sends most students away from campus and forces faculty to reconceptualize how they deliver instruction. Despite these challenges, the master’s program in Robotics & Autonomous Systems is off to a strong start, having just completed its first semester. Enrollment in the first class is nearly double what was anticipated, faculty adapted to the Learn from Anywhere model and students are engaged with the demanding coursework, while also understanding the temporary restrictions imposed by COVID-19. The program is drawing interest from prospective students and industry. More than a dozen leading robotics companies in the Boston area are expressing interest in internships and offering input on the curriculum. Professor Sean Andersson (ME, MSE), the program’s director, says students are particularly enjoying the machine learning aspect of the program. “They like the opportunity to take courses in this hot topic,” he says. “Several companies told us they want machine learning in the curriculum. They need people with experience and capability in that domain.” The signature feature of the program is a paid internship. While other programs offer internships, BU’s is the only one that requires it, a significant factor in attracting students. And while most companies don’t 12 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

The program is drawing interest from more than a dozen leading robotics companies in the Boston area.

start accepting applications for summer interns until the early months of the year, Andersson led the effort to get students applying in the fall, which included helping students prepare and refine their résumés in conjunction with the Career Development office. A few of the companies even extended offers before the end of 2020. Darwin Chiu received one such offer; he will intern with Prodrive Technologies, a research and manufacturing company, this summer. Chiu, who graduated from the College of Engineering last year with a Mechanical Engineering bachelor’s degree and a Manufacturing Engineering concentration, hopes to combine his robotics work with his manufacturing background in implementing autonomous systems during his internship. He credits the program’s proactive approach not only with helping students find internships, but also with helping students get the most out of the program. “I really appreciate Professor Andersson,” says Chiu. “He’s been super helpful reaching out to companies, working on our

résumés and discussing what I’m trying to get out of the program and what classes I should take.” Chiu adds that while many students are taking classes remotely, students in the program have been able to form a community through apps like WhatsApp. “We all know each other and interact,” he says. Chiu, like other students in the program, would like more of the hands-on experience that has been limited by COVID restrictions, but he has taken classes like Control Theory and Optimization that emphasize theory. Andersson notes that while the Engineering Product Innovation Center could not be used this year, students in Professor of the Practice Anna Thornton’s (ME) Additive Manufacturing course—an elective in the program—were able to borrow loaner 3D printers and work with them at home. Early indications are that interest in the program remains strong among prospective students. As of mid-January, applications to the fall 2021 class were running 20 percent ahead of last year. — MICHAEL SEELE

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL D. SPENCER

New Robotics & Autonomous Systems Master’s Off to Strong Start

Klapperich Among BBJ’s 50 Leaders Making a Difference

Klapperich spearheaded the creation of a robust COVID-19 testing program last year with the capacity to test BU’s roughly 35,000 students every three days.

rofessor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE, ME) was one of 50 leaders selected for the 2020 list “Extraordinary Year, Extraordinary People: Boston Business Journal’s Power 50.” Vice chair of biomedical engineering and founding director of BU’s Precision Diagnostics Center, Klapperich spearheaded the creation of a robust COVID-19 testing program last year with the capacity to test BU’s roughly 35,000 students every three days. The Boston Business Journal annually identifies the 50 most influential and impactful people in the city. This year’s Power 50 took on a different theme, recognizing those “whose influence, innovation, commitment, and courage are making a difference in the community during an extraordinary time,” according to a BBJ editorial. According to the editorial, those named by the publication “found their own way to rise to meet the unprecedented challenges that accompanied this past year. “Many worked behind the scenes, without seeking recognition, while others used their positions of leadership to bring attention to areas that the pandemic and widespread racial reckoning have exposed as badly in need of change.” While some honorees are well-known leaders who have made the list in previous years, others are making their mark through hard work of a kind not often recognized by such lists. All are “extraordinary people who are quietly helping change Boston for the better,” the editorial says. “And that’s something we can all aspire to emulate: In what’s been an extraordinary year by any measure, we can all work to be extraordinarily kind, or generous, or thoughtful of the needs of others. In doing so, we can meet the demands of the moment head-on.” In addition to Klapperich, the list recognized five BU alumni, another BU professor and the CEO of Boston Medical Center.

NEWS BYTES RAPP WINS YOUNG AUTHOR BEST PAPER AWARD

Joshua Rapp (’20) has earned the 2020 IEEE Signal Processing Society’s Young Author Best Paper Award for “A Few Photons Among Many: Unmixing Signal and Noise for Photon-Efficient Active Imaging.” Rapp’s paper describes a novel computational imaging method that dramatically improves image quality by enabling single-photon lidar with extraordinarily low signal-to-background ratio.

COSKUN EARNS IBM FACULTY AWARD

Associate Professor Ayse Coskun (ECE) earned an IBM Faculty Award to advance her research on AI-driven data fusion techniques, known as DevSecOps, that enhance the security of modern application development and deployment on the cloud. Her team will investigate AI-driven data fusion by navigating compiled cross-layer data to provide insights on how to fix vulnerable codes and services, identifying whether incidents are related to compliance and security violations, and infusing AI into the DevSecOps pipeline as a preventative measure.

MANCHANDA APPOINTED CTO OF SAMPE

Raj Manchanda (’89) has joined the leadership of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) North America as its chief technology officer. Manchanda will lead the professional association’s technological vision, technical resource development, and technical programming, including conferences, seminars, publications and online content.

ENG AFFILIATES WIN CAREER AWARDS

Two College of Arts & Sciences professors affiliated with the MSE department at ENG have received Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF). CAREER awards recognize exceptional early career scientists. Assistant Professor of Physics Wanzheng Hu is experimenting with high-temperature superconductors using ultra-short laser pulses to control the arrangement of atoms in iron-based materials. Assistant Professor of Chemistry Xi Ling is working to shed new light on a chemistry technique known as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), a method used to enhance Raman spectroscopy—which can detect the composition of a substance by analyzing how light scatters on the surface of its molecules as they vibrate.

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START-U 14 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

TWO ENG ALUMNI ARE ON FORBES’ LIST OF TOP YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS BY PATRICK L. KENNEDY

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DANCER, TRAVELER, ENTREPRENEUR When Saniya Shah took her first steps toward launching a business, they were dance steps. Growing up in New Hampshire as the daughter of Indian immigrants, Shah trained in Indian classical dance for years, eventually completing a Nritya Nipuna—a prestigious capstone dance recital. Shah’s passion for dance planted the seeds for her first start-up. That start-up wouldn’t blossom until later, but even in high school, Shah showed leadership qualities and grit. She started a nonprofit, Green Chilies, that won an international environmental award for its work cutting down on electronics waste by repurposing bulky old computer monitors as HDTVs for developing countries, including India. “From a young age, I was exposed to what it is to be an entrepreneur,” says Shah, whose father is the co-founder and CEO of a software company. “My parents were always so supportive of my interests in STEM and entrepreneurship, so whether in classes or 16 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

clubs, I gained the confidence and pursued those skills I might need down the line.” Shah brought that mindset to Boston University. Though she majored in biomedical engineering, she took on an extra challenge in the form of coding and software engineering courses. “These were the core computer engineering courses,” says Professor David Castañón (ECE, SE). “They were very challenging for non-CE majors,” or even CE majors, he added, “but Saniya was very ambitious and recognized the need for strong computer skills in her future.” It was daunting to be one of the few women in those classes, Shah recalls: “I didn’t fit in with the boys’ club.” At first, she struggled with the material and didn’t feel comfortable participating in class discussions or group projects. Castañón encouraged her to

When Saniya Shah took her first steps toward launching a business, they were dance steps.

Before Pilota took off, Shah turned her passion for Indian classical dance into a business.

PREVIOUS PAGE: SANIYA SHAH BY MAMADI DOUMBOUYA AND EDUARDO PORTET BY MITCH TOBIAS

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you’re a frequent flyer, you’ve been there. At the airport, eyes on the big board, monitoring your flight status. Delayed. Delayed. And then: Cancelled. Saniya Shah (’16) has certainly been there, and she’s hit upon a solution. Shah is the CEO and co-founder of Pilota, a travel tech start-up that uses AI to predict the likelihood of flight disruptions and empowers customers to book alternate flights ahead of time. No longer must travelers rely on the say-so of the big airlines. The editors at Forbes thought that was a promising development. They named Shah and two colleagues to the leading business magazine’s annual “30 Under 30” feature last fall. Specifically, Pilota appeared in the consumer tech list—one of 20 categories, each featuring 30 of America’s top start-ups led by twenty-somethings. And Shah is not alone as an ENG alum. Eduardo Portet (’18) and partner made it into the enterprise tech category with their start-up company, Index. Their software allows busy managers with no coding experience to quickly build their own business-intelligence (BI) dashboards, turning internal stats into actionable insights. Index is ideal for companies that know they want to be “data-driven,” but don’t know how to get there. Forbes billed the latest list of leading young entrepreneurs as “a wake-up call to cynics who think they have seen it all.” The publication winnowed down this honor roll from 14,000 nominees. What are the odds that two of ENG’s own would crack the list? In fact, it’s no fluke. Here are their stories.

Shah pitched Pilota at the Future Travel Experience Startup Hub in 2019.

A FRIEND TO THE TRAVELER Shah has been a frequent flyer since she was a baby, traveling to India to visit family once a year and adding other destinations for business or leisure. She’s been to 50 countries and speaks four languages. She knows well the trials and travails of travel. “Delays are the worst,” Shah says. “And they’re just handled so poorly among all parties involved. I think every traveler, the second you say ‘delay’ or ‘cancellation,’ can think of a time it caused a lot of rippling effects outside just their travel schedule. It’s almost like an emotional problem as well as a physical one.” While earning an MBA at Cornell Tech in New York City, Shah and three classmates founded Pilota with a mission to take some of

Shah with Pilota co-founders (l-r) Cyrus Ghazanfar, Omar Winrauke and Kulvinder Lotay

stick with it. “He was extremely supportive,” Shah says. “I would go to office hours and sit in the front of the class and speak up, and he made sure I got the support I needed.” “She was a talented student,” recalls Castañón, who was the department chair then. “She quickly caught up” and earned high grades. ANOTHER STAGE ALTOGETHER Despite the heavy course load—or perhaps because of it—Shah continued dancing, as part of Chankaar, BU’s Indian fusion dance team. “That took up a lot of my time,” says Shah, who rose to president of the club. “But it was a nice break. Engineering can be very intense. With dance, you’d get to use a different part of your brain.” Her teammate and fellow executive board member Jyothi Nair (CAS’15) remembers how as president, Shah balanced “her creative side with the logical.” Moreover, Shah was equally comfortable launching a project and listening to others’ ideas, Nair says. “She was not just a great leader but also a great team player.” After graduation, Shah was working in the innovation incubator of healthcare company Optum when a relative asked her to choreograph a dance routine for a wedding reception. Shah tapped Nair for help. The dance proved a hit, more weddings followed, and soon the duo went pro, co-founding Kahaani Event Choreography. They coordinated with families stretched around the globe, teaching steps via video. “She was working closely with clients,” says Nair, “talking them through from start to finish, making sure they had a great experience, that they were being tended to” even in the thick of potentially stressful wedding planning. The attention Shah paid to clients’ feelings as well as their logistical complexities would find a parallel in her next start-up.

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF SANIYA SHAH

The attention Shah paid to clients’ feelings as well as their logistical complexities would find a parallel in her next start-up.

that worrying out of flying. Their algorithm crunches data across the myriad factors that cause delays—from weather to mechanical issues that cause cascading delays as an aircraft flies several routes throughout a day. The software predicts the risk of a flight disruption and allows customers to automatically book a new flight. The goal is to level the playing field, Shah says. “Travelers are very much dependent upon these very large companies. What we try to do is bring some of that power back to the people. To let them know, ‘Hey, if your airline messes up, we’ll help.’” The company got funding from the accelerator 500 Startups and began selling its service to business travelers and corporate travel managers in 2019. MAINTAINING MOMENTUM Then in spring 2020, the pandemic dealt its blow to the travel industry. Pilota added a new product, a Chrome extension called FlySafe. Users select the safety factors most important to them— does the airline block middle seats? Require masks? Then as they shop for flights, FlySafe rates each trip according to those criteria. Pilota made the extension available to the public for free. (They are building a version for paying corporate clients.) “People still ENGINEER SPRING 2021

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After a chance meeting in San Francisco, Pladevall (left) and Portet (right) founded Index, a business dashboard builder.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Eduardo Portet cut his teeth as a businessman in the Dominican Republic, where he was born and raised. Granted, those were baby teeth: his first venture was selling conch shells he’d found on the beach to neighbors and family. But Portet continued to take business seriously. As teenagers, he and Xavier Pladevall—friends since preschool—started their high school’s chapter of DECA Inc. (formerly the Distributive Education Clubs of America), a youth organization for students interested in business and entrepreneurship. Portet was the chief procurement officer. When he came to BU to study electrical and computer engineering, it was only natural that Portet would sign up for ENG’s Technology Innovation Concentration (TIC), a four-course sequence dealing with topics in entrepreneurship, innovation and technology as a provider of societal impact and value. Professor (ECE, SE) and Associate Dean for Educational Initiatives Thomas Little, who is the program’s coordinator, says, “The TIC is our most popular concentration and has graduated 50 to 60 concentrators per year since its inception” in 2012. Portet says his eyes were opened by TIC guest lecturer Rana K. Gupta, director of faculty entrepreneurship at BU, who talked about his own experiences in start-ups, venture capital, finance and healthcare. Until then, Portet says, “I didn’t know you could just start a company and talk to investors and get external Pladevall (left) and Portet (right) have been capital without a finished friends since preschool. product.” Meanwhile, Portet got hands-on experience building products in Little’s courses. “Those were some of the best, most fruitful classes I took at BU,” Portet says. “He gave you the freedom to research, explore and play around with things that weren’t necessarily in the syllabus.” For his part, Little remembers Portet as “a delight to work with.” The professor also sponsored a team of ECE majors including Portet who built a drone-tracking laser for their senior design project, presented at the annual ECE Day event. The team’s goal was to find 18 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

a way to maintain two-way wireless optical communication with a moving unmanned aerial vehicle. Potential applications would include providing internet access to disaster areas. It was a daunting task, recalls Associate Professor of the Practice Alan Pisano, the senior design instructor. “At the onset, it was not at all certain that the team could solve the problem,” says Pisano. “But they did! Eduardo designed the part of the tracking algorithm that would find the location of the drone for the precision laser-tracking algorithm to then take over. He was an effective member of the team,” which won the ECE Day’s Design Excellence Award. The importance of teamwork was one of Portet’s prime takeaways from the project. “It felt like I was working in a real company,” he says. “Especially in software engineering, it can be easy to just build a project by yourself. When you start building things together, it becomes harder in some respects,” but by learning to communicate and delegate tasks, Portet says, the end product is better, “and it gets done faster.” And through TIC, Portet did work in a real company—as an intern at Medidata Solutions, a software company focused on the life sciences. There, Portet got his first experience creating a BI dashboard builder. “My boss showed me he had like 300 Chrome tabs open at the same time,” Portet says. The chaos cried out for its opposite: a single, central source for vast and varied metrics to be called up in clear visuals. GO WEST, YOUNG MAN After graduation, Portet moved with his girlfriend to San Francisco, without a plan or a job. That leap of faith was rewarded when the couple was walking around a mall and bumped into Portet’s old friend Pladevall. The latter had attended Columbia University and

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF EDUARDO PORTET

need to fly,” says Shah, “whether it’s for a family emergency” or a work site visit that can’t be done remotely. “If people need to travel, we want to make sure they have a safe way to do so.” FlySafe has helped Pilota maintain its momentum, Shah says, and with COVID-19 vaccinations happening, her team is optimistic that business travel will bounce back, as it has after previous downturns. “The fact that through the pandemic they’ve not only survived but are continuing to make a name for themselves,” says Nair, “is a testament to her leadership and her ideas and her ability to run a team.”

THE COMPETITION

14,000 20

600 2

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TOP START-UPS

CATEGORIES

BU ENG ALUMNI

THE COMPANIES

200,000 FLIGHTS ANALYZED BY PILOTA

$2.6 MILLION IN SEED FUNDING RAISED BY INDEX

was at this time working for Facebook, but was ready to jump ship. “Xavier was already in entrepreneur mode,” Portet says. “He wanted to start a company.” In short order, Portet and Pladevall joined forces. They pitched concepts at hackathons. Like true entrepreneurs, they hatched ideas that didn’t go anywhere but that contained the seeds for better ideas. “We iterated through three different products,” Portet says. “You have to deal with a lot of rejections. That’s a big part of staying determined. A lot of people say no.” At one hackathon, they unexpectedly got to meet with and hear feedback from Michael Seibel, CEO of Y Combinator, the high-profile start-up accelerator. “If you had told me three years ago that I’d be talking with the CEO of Y Combinator,” Portet says, “I’d be like, ‘No way.’ Or at least I’d expect to be in a suit, in a very formal meeting. But he was just chilling around in shorts and sandals.” Based on feedback from Seibel and others as the pair refined their product, Portet and Pladevall settled on a “no-code” BI dashboard builder. The mission of their company, Index, is to empower managers without technical training to build dashboards that turn

“BU really helped me get where I am today,” says Portet. “It’s crazy to see how far the BU community reaches.”

reams of sales figures and other data into insights in the form of graphs, charts and other readily readable visuals. “We’re doing it through an intuitive user interface,” says Portet. “Our goal is to make Index a no-brainer,” especially for companies that hope to leverage data but lack the expertise and manpower to do so. “A lot of businesses just don’t track anything,” Portet continues. “They’re very in-the-moment. ‘Hey, we closed a deal today!’ Instead of, ‘Okay, we closed a deal today, but we closed three yesterday. What can we do to close three tomorrow? Or more?’” Index is in a private beta stage now, in which a limited number of clients—ranging from a barbershop booking platform to hospitality and financial technology start-ups—can use the software and provide feedback to the developers. In October, Index got a $2.6 million seed investment from Y Combinator as well as David Sacks, Slack and Gradient Venture. The founders have hired two more software engineers, so they can delegate some tasks as they grow the company. They’re seeking to raise another $1 million this year. “I wouldn’t bet against them,” wrote a reporter for TechCrunch. FINDING FAME IN FORBES Those who knew Shah and Portet at ENG were not at all surprised to hear the alumni landed on the Forbes list. More may well follow, as the college continues to produce Societal Engineers. “She’s such a go-getter,” says Nair of Shah. “Whatever it is she decides to do, she puts her all into it.” “I was impressed,” says Castañón, “but not surprised, based on what I observed of her potential at Boston University.” Shah herself, on the other hand, was “shocked,” she says. “I don’t have the words to explain how it happened, but I’m very excited about it.” “It’s just surreal,” echoes Portet. Little was gratified to hear of his former charge’s success. “That Eduardo has been identified as a rising star as an entrepreneur is a feather in our cap for the TIC program,” he points out. “BU really helped me get where I am today,” says Portet. Not only did he learn teamwork, technical skills and the entrepreneur mindset, but because Boston itself is rather a start-up hotbed, his alma mater can be a conversation starter. “It’s crazy to see how far the BU community reaches.” Still, Portet has found that in Silicon Valley, “People don’t really care what your past is, as long as you have a good idea and the determination to actually sit down and build it.” As for Shah, just as she was encouraged in her tech aspirations by her parents and by professors like Castañón, she hopes to fortify younger women who harbor start-up dreams. She takes any opportunity to give talks to female high school or college students interested in entrepreneurship and believes it’s important for women to support each other. And that includes friends like Nair. “BU definitely was a huge part of where I am today,” Shah says. “Some of the people I met there are still some of my closest friends and my biggest supporters and shoulders to lean on, and people I can reach out to when things get tough.” ENGINEER SPRING 2021

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ALUMNI PROFILE

Using Lizy Flagg’s app, volunteers have made

420 1,100 deliveries, for a total of

meals to families in need during the pandemic.

Flagg developed a mobile app for Rescuing Leftover Cuisine home deliveries that volunteers can use to contact donors, recipients and alternates, as well as navigate pickup and delivery sites.

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“I started realizing there could be some streamlining,” says Flagg, who offered to build an app.

“If the two of us could barely handle this, how does one person do all of these things?” Rather than switching between emails, spreadsheets, Google maps and PDFs, Flagg thought the volunteer experience could be improved with “everything centralized in one easy-to-access place” such as an app that would allow volunteers to call recipients and navigate to their address with just one click. Flagg offered to build it. “It was right after I graduated, so I had a little more free time on my hands before I started working,” she says. “I thought, this could be my quarantine project.” “Lizy’s kindness could not have come at a better time,” notes Dana Siles, RLC’s New England coordinator. The local branch had considered incorporating an app, but found developer costs pro-

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CYDNEY SCOTT

izy Flagg (’20) has been busy during quarantine, and the numbers prove it. After COVID-19 sent her back to her parents’ Framingham, Massachusetts, home last March to complete her biomedical engineering degree and Flagg found herself with more free time, she worried about how the pandemic would worsen the existing economic disparities in Boston and searched for a safe, hands-on way to support the communities most affected by the crisis. She was drawn to the work of Rescuing Leftover Cuisine (RLC), a nonprofit that combats food waste and food insecurity in more than 15 US cities. With the help of volunteer “food rescuers,” RLC connects restaurants and other businesses that have surplus food with homeless shelters, food pantries and other local human services agencies. Flagg signed up for her first shift at the end of March 2020. Since then, using her app, volunteers have made 420 deliveries, for a total of 1,100 meals to families in need during the pandemic. Food makes up about a quarter of the waste stream in Massachusetts, yet 9.3 percent of households in the state were food-insecure in 2018— according to the United States Department of Agriculture, unable to provide enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. Last spring, the pandemic exacerbated both these issues. The number of food-insecure households tripled, with Black and Latinx households experiencing a disproportionately higher rate of food insecurity. To help, RLC increased the number of volunteer shifts and added home delivery to their roster of services. In partnership with a variety of organizations, the nonprofit has since delivered more than 13,000 meals to the homes of Boston Public Schools students, low-income senior citizens, veterans and permanent residents in the Pine Street Inn’s Rapid Re-Housing program, among others. Making primarily home deliveries, Flagg quickly discovered that some of them were two-person jobs. She enlisted the help of her boyfriend, Aaron Bourget, who drove while she navigated, kept track of recipients and called to confirm they were home to receive delivery (due to food safety concerns, before heading to the next house RLC volunteers must ensure a recipient has received their food; if the recipient is unable to answer the door, volunteers refer to a list of alternative recipients, who often live far from the original delivery area). “I think that’s when I started realizing that there could be some streamlining,” Flagg recalls.

APP 2020 GRAD FIGHTING WASTE AND FOOD INSECURITY BY DANA FERRANTE

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hibitive on a nonprofit budget. After a few meetings with Siles and her colleagues at RLC headquarters in New York, Flagg built the app using the platform AppSheet, which easily integrated RLC’s existing data-tracking systems. “I was blown away,” Siles says. “I couldn’t believe [her] level of ingenuity, creativity, and just incredible generosity.” With coding experience from her ENG classes and her research job at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, “my foundations of code were pretty strong,” Flagg says, “but I had never actually done app development before.” Flagg then became her own first beta tester, using the app while making deliveries to homes in East Boston, the South End and Dorchester. With recipient lists now organized geographically, she had a much easier time managing stops. The app launched to all of RLC on August 1.

RLC currently services 167 Boston-area households, a number that is expected to increase. In July, the nonprofit was awarded a Boston Resiliency Fund grant to continue expanding its infrastructure. “Especially now as we prepare for the winter,” Siles says, “the app will make volunteering with Rescuing Leftover Cuisine a safer, easier and more positive experience.” These days, Flagg does most of her volunteer deliveries on the weekends. In late June, she began full-time work as a medical assistant and clinical research coordinator at Greater Boston Gastroenterology, and hopes to enroll in medical school in fall 2021. In the meantime, she’s appreciated hearing feedback from the more than 40 RLC rescuers who have used her app. “I was nervous about how people who had done [deliveries] very differently would adapt to the app,” she says. “Most people seem to really like it.”

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Flagg (left) and her boyfriend, Aaron Bourget, picking up a donation from Bagelsaurus in Cambridge during an August volunteer shift for Rescuing Leftover Cuisine.

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research

COOKING UP PPE

DANGEROUSLY RESILIENT BACTERIA

Three Reasons Why COVID-19 Can Cause Silent Hypoxia ENG BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERS USE COMPUTER MODELING TO INVESTIGATE WHY BLOOD OXYGEN DROPS SO LOW IN MANY COVID-19 PATIENTS

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ore than a year since COVID-19 began spreading in the US, scientists are still solving the many puzzling aspects of how the novel coronavirus attacks the lungs and other parts of the body. One of the biggest and most life-threatening mysteries is how the virus causes “silent hypoxia,” a condition that occurs when oxygen levels in the body are abnormally low, which can irreparably damage vital organs if gone undetected for too long. Now, thanks to computer models and Suki’s findings suggest comparisons with real three factors as likely to be responsible for patient data, Boston the severe cases of University biomedical low oxygen in some COVID-19 patients: a engineers and colhigher than normal laborators from the blood flow in areas University of Vermont of the lungs that can no longer gather have begun to crack the oxygen; blood clotting mystery. in the lung; and a mismatched air-toDespite experiencblood flow. ing dangerously low levels of oxygen, many people infected with severe cases of COVID-19 sometimes show no symptoms of difficulty breathing or shortness of breath; hypoxia’s ability to quietly inflict damage is why it’s been coined “silent.” In coronavirus patients, it’s thought that the infection first damages the lungs, rendering parts of them incapable of functioning properly. Those tissues lose oxygen and stop working, no longer infusing the bloodstream with oxygen, causing silent hypoxia. But exactly how that domino effect occurs has not been clear until now. “We didn’t know [how this] was physiologically possible,” says Professor Béla Suki (BME, MSE), an author of the study. ENGINEER SPRING 2021

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Some coronavirus patients have experienced what some experts have described as blood oxygen levels that are “incompatible with life.” Disturbingly, Suki says that many of these patients showed little to no signs of abnormalities when they underwent lung scans. To help get to the bottom of what causes silent hypoxia, BU biomedical engineers used computer modeling to test out three different scenarios that help explain how and why the lungs stop providing oxygen to the bloodstream. Their research, which has been published in Nature Communications, reveals that silent hypoxia is likely caused by a combination of biological mechanisms that may occur simultaneously in the lungs of COVID-19 patients, according to biomedical engineer Jacob Herrmann, a research postdoctoral associate in Suki’s lab and lead author of the new study. Normally, the lungs perform the life-sustaining duty of gas exchange, providing oxygen to every cell in the body as we breathe in and ridding us of carbon dioxide each time we exhale. Healthy lungs keep the blood oxygenated at a level between 95 and 100 percent—if it dips below 92 percent, there is cause for concern and a doctor might decide to intervene with supplemental oxygen. (Early in the coronavirus pandemic, when clinicians first started sounding the alarm about silent hypoxia, oximeters flew off the shelves as many people, worried that they or their family members might have to recover from milder cases of coronavirus at home, wanted to be able to monitor their blood oxygen levels.) The researchers first looked at how COVID-19 impacts the lungs’ ability to regulate where blood is directed. Normally, if areas of the lung aren’t gathering much oxygen due to damage from infection, the blood vessels will constrict in those areas. It’s actually good that our lungs have evolved to do this, because it forces blood to instead flow through lung tissue replete with oxygen, which is then circulated throughout the rest of the body. But according to Herrmann, preliminary clinical data has suggested that the lungs of some COVID-19 patients had lost the ability to restrict blood flow to already damaged tissue and, in contrast, were potentially 24 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

Professor Béla Suki (BME, MSE)

opening up those blood vessels even more— something that is hard to see or measure on a CT scan. Using a computational lung model, Herrmann, Suki and their team tested that theory, revealing that for blood oxygen levels to drop to the levels observed in COVID-19 patients, blood flow would, indeed, have to be much higher than normal in areas of the lungs that can no longer gather oxygen—contributing to low levels of oxygen throughout the entire body. Next, they looked at how blood clotting may impact blood flow in different regions of the lung. When the lining of blood vessels gets inflamed from COVID-19 infection, tiny blood clots too small to be seen on medical scans can form inside the lungs. Using computer modeling of the lungs, they found that this could incite silent hypoxia, but alone it is likely not enough to cause oxygen levels to drop as low as the levels seen in patient data. Lastly, the researchers used their computer model to find out if COVID-19 interferes with the normal ratio of air-toblood flow that the lungs need to function normally. This type of mismatched air-toblood flow ratio is something that happens in many respiratory illnesses, such as with asthma patients, Suki says, and it can contribute to the severe, silent hypoxia that

has been observed in COVID-19 patients. Their models suggest that for this to be a cause of silent hypoxia, the mismatch must be happening in parts of the lung that don’t appear injured or abnormal on lung scans. Altogether, their findings suggest that a combination of all three factors is likely to be responsible for the severe cases of low oxygen in some COVID-19 patients. By having a better understanding of these underlying mechanisms, and how the combinations could vary from patient to patient, clinicians can make more informed choices about treating patients using measures like ventilation and supplemental oxygen. Several interventions are currently being studied, including a low-tech intervention called “prone positioning” that flips patients over onto their stomachs, allowing for the back part of the lungs to pull in more oxygen and evening out the mismatched air-toblood ratio. “Different people respond to this virus so differently,” says Suki. He stresses that it’s critical for clinicians to understand all the possible reasons why a patient’s blood oxygen might be low, so that they can decide on the proper form of treatment, including medications that could help constrict blood vessels, bust blood clots or correct a mismatched air-toblood flow ratio.

“Different people respond to this virus so differently,” says Suki. It’s critical for clinicians to understand all the possible reasons why a patient’s blood oxygen might be low, so that they can decide on the proper form of treatment. — JESSICA COLAROSSI

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACKIE RICCIARDI

research

COVID-19 Risk Assessment to Address Inequity

PHOTOGRAPH OF PASCHALIDIS BY JACKIE RICCIARDI; MEXICO BY SHUTTERSTOCK

s it has stormed the globe, COVID-19 has placed significant pressures on healthcare systems. In countries with limited testing resources and capacity-constrained healthcare systems, it is especially essential to determine who is most at risk for it. Knowing who needs medical attention, and what type, informs planning and resource allocation at the local, state and nationwide levels. To address this resource need, BU researchers from the Division of Systems Engineering (SE) and the Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE) conducted a study to predict COVID-19 outcomes in Mexico using machine learning. They published the results in the International Journal of Medical Informatics. Professor and CISE Director Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE, BME, CDS), Professor and Head of the Division of Systems Engineering Christos Cassandras (ECE, SE) and PhD candidate Salomón Wollenstein-Betech (SE) developed personalized models that predict an individual’s likelihood of hospitalization, mortality, need for ICU and need for ventilation with a sample of 91,000 COVID-19 cases from records made public by the Mexican government. After analyzing the information, the researchers built models that considered preexisting conditions and how the disease could progress, discovering that key factors affecting the need for hospitalization and ICU included age, pregnancy, diabetes, gender, chronic renal insufficiency and immunosuppression. “The virus appears to be basically the same around the world,” says Paschalidis. “Still, societies get impacted in very different ways, not only because of local and national policies but also because of different demographics and prevalence of underlying diseases. This work enabled us to focus on Mexico, for which not much work had been

A BU study used machine learning to predict COVID-19 outcomes in Mexico.

done, and to develop custom models that take into account local characteristics.” The idea for the paper was not to build an accurate clinical decision support tool, explains Wollenstein-Betech. “Rather, the objective was to do a risk assessment to inform policy and resource allocation. In particular, in countries like Mexico or other low-mediumincome countries, COVID has been very taxing on the healthcare system. Our risk assessment allows individuals to assess their own risk without going to a hospital and getting tested . . . so the government can assign resources to treat people who need it the most.”

The BU team used a larger data set than previous predictive models, thereby reducing bias and improving accuracy.

Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE, BME, CDS), right, Christos Cassandras (ECE, SE)

The BU team used a larger data set than previous predictive models, thereby reducing bias and improving accuracy. Their models achieved 72 percent accuracy for predicting hospitalization, 79 percent for mortality, 89 percent for ICU admission and 90 percent for use of a ventilator. “This is a first among a series of our work on COVID-19, utilizing data and employing data science methods to predict who is at risk for more severe versions of the disease,” says Paschalidis. With further research, the models could spearhead new developments in policies and guidelines to better protect vulnerable populations. — ELIZA SHAW ENGINEER SPRING 2021

BU.EDU/ENG

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Can the Science of Safe Cooking Solve Our Looming PPE Shortage?

Blonder is applying his love of grilling—and the science behind it—to develop a protocol for personal protective equipment during the pandemic.

MEASURING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IN HOURS

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wave in the United States. “N95s are still in high demand. We have more demand than we can supply,” the chief executive of 3M, the country’s biggest N95 maker, told the Wall Street Journal last month. Blonder and Kwiek are working to test WASP-D in various settings with help from others: a Swiss pathologist, a West Coast dentist, and libraries in Greater Boston. (For the latter, the researchers have offered to provide heaters and thermometers.) They wrote up their work for bioRxiv, an open-access repository of papers that haven’t been peer-reviewed. The duo hopes to publish the paper in a

peer-reviewed journal this year, says Blonder, who paid for the research with his own funds. What are competing researchers coming up with? A lot of people have worked hard to decontaminate N95s. You could use ultraviolet light, UVC light or vaporized hydrogen peroxide. The problems with those are that they require elaborate equipment and safety features, and they are not suited for use in nations with low resources, where the electricity goes out twice a day. And they fail on certain brands and types of PPE. In addition, if you have a gown that’s folded, the UV doesn’t get into the nooks and cran-

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACKIE RICCIARDI

hat does barbecue have to do with the looming shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) as COVID-19 spikes again? Quite possibly, the science of safe grilling could make safe cleaning and reusing PPE the key to arresting dwindling supplies. And not just PPE, but things like library books and hospital mattresses as well. So thinks Professor Greg Blonder (ME), who tackled the PPE question using his expertise in cooking and the science of food safety. He and collaborator Jesse Kwiek of Ohio State University are testing a cheap, low-tech process for decontaminating not just the N95 masks used by frontline health providers, but gowns and booties as well. “When you cook food, you have to cook it hot enough and long enough to be safely consumed,” says Blonder. “COVID is not the same as your typical food pathogens, but it’s related to some of the families. When I ran the numbers, it looked like maybe 10 to 24 hours, at 120 degrees would be enough to decontaminate masks, PPE.” Voilà! Thus was born Warm and Slow Pathogen-Decontamination (WASP-D), which calls for placing PPE in a room or cabinet that’s heated to between 115 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 hours. Blonder believes WASP-D will decontaminate not just PPE, but other items as well, such as the hospital mattresses that coronavirus patients bed down on, and library books that circulate among potentially contagious patrons. The potential PPE deficit is an immediate concern as COVID-19 enters another

THE TEMP AND TIME IT TAKES TO DECONTAMINATE PPE

120 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT

nies and decontaminate it. It’s the same thing with the mask. UVC also damages the mask’s plastic. While I am a huge supporter of any technique that can increase access to reused PPE, those techniques are expensive, slow and damaging. So what you’re suggesting will help not just the United States, but the developing world as well? There’s no question it’ll help here. It’s not just PPE—there’s no question we have shortages here. We have friends who are nurses, and they’re still being told to put their masks in a paper bag overnight. That’s

12 HOURS

the alternative. It’s absurd. This is the richest nation in the world. They’re frontline responders. It was absolutely appropriate that in the early days of the pandemic, we focused on frontline health responders, things like N95 masks. It wasn’t books, it wasn’t beds. But it has now spread so far and deeply into society, we need to think more broadly about how we’re going to be able to create a safe living and working environment that goes beyond PPE. WASP-D uses just hot air that’s already in the room and ambient humidity. It was important that we didn’t have to control humidity, which is expensive and difficult. It sounds so ingeniously simple. Why isn’t it being done already? People have been trying different combinations of high-temperature heat, and heat and humidity. The question was, is 115 to 120 degrees effective enough? There’s so much data out there on how long COVID lasts on different surfaces, on warm days and hot days. We had to confirm—the point of the experiments—that this room humidity, 115–120 degree range, was sufficient to kill the virus in 12 hours. We wanted a technique that was universal for PPE, beds, chairs, books. It turns out that 120 degrees Fahrenheit is the international standard for shipping products. So our thought was, if you could ship it to people safely, probably that means most things can tolerate that temperature for 12 hours. Our research confirmed that. I should be careful: There’s sterilization, which means there’s no microbe left standing, and then there’s decontamination, which means some microbes escape but at a level low enough that it’s safe for

People have been trying different combinations of hightemperature heat, and heat and humidity. The question was, is 115 to 120 degrees effective enough?

the intended application. WASP-D is intermediate decontamination. Would you need government regulators’ approval to use this? You do not. People are wearing masks— none of them are CDC-registered. I will tell you contacts we have in other countries find this whole discussion hilarious. There’s a fine group that does literature reviews and online seminars, and I sat in on a number of their international Zoom calls. They’re describing implementing [a decontamination system] which costs a couple of hundred thousand dollars. People from other countries say, This is great, but useless—we can’t afford it, and we have people who are dying. It was heart-wrenching. People should recognize the disgusting fact that with every breath you take, you’re breathing in fungus, viruses, aerosolized dog poop. Every breath is filled with pathogens, a background level you have to accept as part of life. The other caveat is that this is just meant to decontaminate inanimate objects. You cannot go into a spa at 115 degrees and expect a) to kill COVID inside your body, and b) expect to live more than about a half hour. — RICH BARLOW ENGINEER SPRING 2021

BU.EDU/ENG

Boas Team Wins $5.9M Grant for Neuroimaging Project FUNDS FROM THE NIH BRAIN INITIATIVE WILL SUPPORT NOVEL HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT

euroscience has advanced so that researchers can study how the brain reacts to different stimuli—like pictures or sounds—and they have been able to create hardware that can detect electrical signaling and blood flow within the brain to get a better understanding of how we think. While these advances have led to important discoveries, all research has been done in a contained, unnatural environment.

David Boas (BME, ECE)

Functional MRI, or fMRI, can image blood flow in the brain, showing researchers which parts are used when someone is creating a memory or remembering that memory later. But all of that has to be done with the subject lying inside of an MRI machine—a large, loud piece of equipment. To bring neuroscience research into everyday life, Professor and Director of the Neurophotonics Center David Boas (BME, ECE) is working to create a portable, wear28 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

able brain imaging system and has received a $5.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to do so. The award comes from the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. Over the past 20-plus years, Boas has been developing a wearable brain imaging system called fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy), a machine that can measure blood flow within the brain with infrared light through a flexible, shower-cap-like device strapped to a subject’s head that makes measurements through the skull. When someone thinks, speaks or acts, blood rushes The brain imaging system being developed by David Boas (BME, ECE) is to the part of the brain doing portable and does not require the subject to remain still, so it can be used the work, and Boas tracks that during surgery. rush with light. Unlike other brain imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging, fNIRS Over the past three years, Boas and his doesn’t require the subject to be completely team have developed a prototype for the still, which means it can be used to study portable, wearable brain imaging system brain activity during surgery and memory with a small grant they received from the creation, and on stroke victims, dementia NIH. This new grant that was awarded in patients and children with autism. September will give them the resources to First used to study brain function in the build and test the combined fNIRS/EEG 1990s, fMRI has since revolutionized the device. way we understand the brain. Since then, In addition to the hardware that will sit researchers have been able to increase the on the subject’s head, the system will also ways in which fMRI is used to study how use eye-tracking glasses to capture what the brain reacts to all sorts of stimuli, and the subject is viewing in the world, allowing recently have expanded to showing subjects researchers to see exactly what triggers the movies to see how their brains react while brain to behave and react as it does. viewing different scenarios. With the grant, Boas and his team, But we still don’t understand how the which includes Research Assistant Probrain reacts during natural, everyday interfessor Meryem Yücel, are working with actions. colleagues across Boston University, such The functionality of fNIRS is similar to as Alice Cronin-Golomb and David Somers that of fMRI, in that both measure the blood at the College of Arts & Sciences, and Terry flow response to brain activity. To extend Ellis and Swathi Kiran at Sargent College. the functionality of their wearable fNIRS They’re performing studies demonstrating device, Boas and his team decided to pair it the transition from measuring brain activity with an EEG system, which directly meain constrained laboratory settings to measures electrical neural activity. Pairing these suring brain activity in the everyday world, measurements allows them to compare the and will extend their research to patient EEG and fNIRS data against each other and populations to explore the impact of stroke, gain more information about the functiontraumatic brain injury and Parkinson’s dising brain. ease on the functioning brain. — LIZ SHEELEY

PHOTOGRAPH OF BY BOAS BY SCOTT NOBLES; TOP, BY JANICE CHECCHIO

research

New Imaging Technique Uses Corners to See Around Corners

ay you’re approaching the end of a hallway and you suspect a foe is around the corner, waiting to ambush you. To check, you could carefully extend a handheld mirror, or maybe a novelty periscope. But you might be spotted. Now, imagine instead you’re equipped with a fast-pulsed laser and a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector. No need to break the plane with any part of your person. This complex-yet-portable apparatus will bounce photons off the walls, floor and ceiling within the narrow slice of space that you can see of the hallway around the corner. It turns out that people, and all objects, project dim reflections even in limited light. The photons you fire grab information from these barely perceptible shadows and return to the SPAD detector, which accurately reconstructs a 3D image of whatever lies in the hidden space. (Now let’s imagine there was nothing there but a stray cat, so we can exhale.) That’s the technology that has been developed by Professor Vivek Goyal (ECE) and a team including Joshua Rapp (’20) and doctoral research fellow Charles Saunders. In a paper recently published in Nature Communications, the team describes the results of their work—a laser-camera system that can map out large-scale scenes around corners with only a small opening available. The technique harnesses the presence of a vertical edge to see into a hidden space. “If you aim a laser pointer at the base of a doorway and then move the laser spot around, different amounts of the scene beyond the door frame are illuminated depending on the position of the laser,” says Goyal. “We use this to resolve the hidden space. The light that bounces back corresponds only to the part of the scene that was lit up—not the

The imaging system developed by Vivek Goyal (ECE) and his team can collect light from a small area in order to reconstruct the entire scene that is hidden from view.

regions in shadow due to the vertical edge. Using that observation, we realized that we could subtract measurements corresponding to two different laser positions to isolate the response to light reflected from only a narrow wedge of the hidden scene.” In addition to scanning a pulsed laser to a small number of points on an arc at the base of a vertical edge, a single-photon detector focused to a fixed spot just beyond the edge captures time-resolved or “transient” measurements of the light reflected back. Differences between transient measurements from pairs of laser positions isolate the response from individual wedges of the hidden space, and an algorithm reconstructs the position, orientation and reflectivity of surfaces within each wedge. One benefit of the new approach is that it scans only a small region of the floor near the edge. Alternative methods require scanning large regions of walls, which may not always be practical in real-world settings. The new imaging method builds upon previous research by Goyal’s group. With a paper published in Science, Goyal established the field of depth imaging from ex-

tremely low light levels— as little as one photon detected per pixel—using pulsed lasers and time-resolved photon detectors. Last year, Vivek Goyal (ECE) Saunders, Goyal and former postdoc John Murray-Bruce published a paper in Nature describing a “nonline-of-sight imaging” technique using an ordinary digital camera to capture color images, albeit with no depth information and requiring the shape of a hidden occluding object to be known in advance. The new work takes advantage of the fact that the occluding object—the vertical edge—is visible and likewise uses probabilistic modeling of photon detections to improve the computational methods. — ECE STAFF AND PATRICK L. KENNEDY ENGINEER SPRING 2021

BU.EDU/ENG

research

A CONVERSATION WITH THE PROFESSOR WHOSE BOOK WARNS OF THE GROWING RISK OF DRUG-RESISTANT INFECTIONS

or the past eight months, the world’s attention has been focused on the deadly health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already infected 30 million people and killed more than 2,000,000. But in his gripping, highly readable book, Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens (Harper Wave, 2020), Professor Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE) says there is an equally urgent crisis before us—drug-resistant infections. More than 700,000 people die each year as a result of multidrug-resistant diseases, including at least 35,000 in the United States. And as Zaman, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, makes clear, the situation is getting more urgent. Without action, he writes, we are likely to face an unimaginable public health crisis: “It will be like the great plague of the Middle Ages, the influenza pandemic of 1918, the AIDS crisis of the 1990s and the Ebola epidemic of 2014 all combined into a single threat.” Zaman notes that bacteria predate humans by 3.5 billion years and that from the beginning, they have proven resilient: “The multilayered bacterial defense mechanism—one of nature’s oldest creations, ever-evolving, ever-surprising—has learned to stay a step ahead of us at every single point in our history together.”

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“The hope actually stems from individuals in far corners of the world— people who do care, who are selfless and fighting against the current tide of nationalism.”

If we fail to address the growing crisis of drug-resistant infections, “we are likely to face a public health crisis of unimaginable proportions,” says Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE).

we ended up here. This wasn’t an accident, or a single event, but a series of events, policies, and decisions, and if we want our future to be better than our past, it is critical that we understand that. How serious a threat is this health crisis? How worried should we be? The threat is already serious and is only getting worse. I am not sure if putting a number on it is going to make people care, because we are often numb to statistics, but think about it this way: If this continues, our routine procedures, elective surgeries, C-sections, etc., will become a question of life or death. Unfortunately, inequity would

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACKIE RICCIARDI

Muhammad Zaman on the Increasing Dangers of Antibiotic Resistance

Chapter by chapter, Zaman, whose research currently focuses on antibiotic resistance in low-income countries and refugee settlements and who was recently awarded a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, shows how bacteria have been able to quickly elude our arsenal of increasingly potent antibiotic drugs since the first ones were introduced for widespread use in the 1940s. He illustrates the myriad factors that have contributed to microbial resistance, including the overprescribing of antibiotics, counterfeit drugs that are often of poor quality, the large-scale use of antibiotics in agriculture, and ongoing wars and conflicts, which, he says, “contaminate waterways, destroy infrastructure and create drug-resistant infections.” How did you become interested in bacterial resistance to antibiotics? Over the last decade, a significant part of my research has focused on counterfeit and substandard medicines as a central part of our global health research. My previous book, Bitter Pills: The Global War on Counterfeit Drugs (Oxford University Press, 2018), looked at this problem as well. It turns out that among the drugs that are often substandard and counterfeit are antibiotics. Among the challenges that these drugs pose, antibiotic resistance ranks at the very top. What made you decide to write Biography of Resistance? First, I feel strongly that scientists, researchers, engineers, etc., should engage the general public on issues of science to increase awareness about the important public health challenges of our time. We do not do that adequately or effectively. Second, I think it is critical that we understand the history of how

BACTERIA PREDATE HUMANS BY

3.5 BILLION YEARS

700,000

PEOPLE DIE EACH YEAR AS A RESULT OF MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT DISEASES INCLUDING AT LEAST

35,000 IN THE UNITED STATES.

If we fail to address the growing crisis of drug-resistant infections, “we are likely to face a public health crisis of unimaginable proportions,” says Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE).

increase further as this would make life harder for those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. People in low-income countries, those who live in urban informal settlements, those who are at high risk of infection—all will be hit harder. People assume that drug companies are constantly working to develop new and better antibacterial drugs, but you write that that isn’t the case. Unfortunately, a large number of companies, including Novartis and AstraZeneca, are leaving the antibiotics business. The business models for antibiotics are no longer as attractive as they used to be. The

companies are moving towards noncommunicable diseases—cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders, etc. As a result, the pipeline of new antibiotics has nearly dried up. This is a serious concern. And an effort at BU called CARB-X, led by Kevin Outterson, a School of Law professor, is aiming to address that issue. What is the solution to antibiotic resistance? What needs to be done? We need an approach that is rooted not just in science, but also one that relies on good economic models, a respect for all communities, a stronger emphasis on peace and a pushback on industrial hubris and greed.

You talk about the doomsday scenario posed by a drug-resistant superbug in the book, but you also express a sense of optimism about the future. Where do you see reason for hope in addressing this crisis? The hope actually stems from individuals in far corners of the world—people who do care, who are selfless and fighting against the current tide of nationalism. People like Dr. Rumina Hasan in Karachi, like Tore Midtvedt in Norway, Dame Sally Davies in the UK, Dr. Joanne Liu, the former president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), as well as many students, fellows and ordinary citizens who are dedicating their lives to this cause and are not giving up. Their stories are powerful and inspiring. They give me hope. — JOHN O’ROURKE ENGINEER SPRING 2021

BU.EDU/ENG

research

rofessor Ji-Xin Cheng (ECE, BME, MSE) wants to make diagnostic imaging better by following the biology. He sees his work—creating imaging systems that don’t rely on biological markers—as a way to answer questions we don’t even have yet, using label-free imaging. This technique allows clinicians to see the bigger picture, and not only what they were looking for. Last summer, Cheng received a Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award (MIRA) for $2.9 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue his work. Investigators receive MIRAs after demonstrating success using one of the NIH’s top research grants, the R01, of which the MIRA is a type of extension that allows researchers to build on their work. In awarding this grant, the NIH looks at what an investigator has done in the past five years, time Cheng devoted to inventing and advancing two novel imaging techniques, improving them by increasing precision and specificity while also figuring out how to get them into the clinic. These techniques—multiplex simulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy and mid-infrared photothermal (MIP) microscopy—can map cell metabolism to better understand the development of cancer and many other diseases, help physicians accurately remove cancerous cells in surgery and quickly test for antibiotic effectiveness. And because they are label-free—a technique used when the researcher or physician doesn’t know what the target of the imaging should be—they can apply to a wide range of 32 B U C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

Ji-Xin Cheng (ECE, BME, MSE), right, with students in his lab in 2019.

Cheng is developing a technique, infrared photothermal microscopy, that can map the metabolism of cells to potentially aid in disease diagnoses and treatment.

cancers and diseases. For example, when a physician is looking to diagnose a patient and suspects cancer, there are specific biological markers to confirm a diagnosis. Cancer is not just one disease, and scientists don’t know definitively which tests to run in order to be sure that a patient is cancer free. Label-free imaging eliminates that uncertainty by imaging a patient’s cells to look for signs of cancer, like increased metabolic rate, without requiring a specific molecular target. Cheng’s laboratory is working on bringing SRS imaging into the clinic by developing a handheld SRS microscope, a new

tool able to detect the difference between cancerous and noncancerous brain tissue. Cheng is developing a technique, infrared photothermal microscopy, that can map the metabolism of cells to potentially aid in disease diagnoses and treatment. Early in his career, Cheng spearheaded the development of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy and demonstrated label-free CARS imaging of the myelin sheath, the insulating layer that wraps around nerve fibers, to look at spinal cord injuries, and triggered the development of a nanomedicine for functional recovery of an injured spinal cord. As a postdoc at Harvard University in the department of chemistry and chemical biology, he sat in undergraduate classes in biology and physiology to help him understand the gaps in biologist techniques and tools. Previously, he had studied physics and chemistry as both an undergraduate and graduate student. “My advisor, Professor Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, always said you could develop a tool, but it will not be useful unless biologists use it,” Cheng reflects. “There are large breakthroughs in biology that were serendipitous and not driven by design, so by expanding the ability of scientists to look beyond what they know, we can allow for more of those discoveries to happen.” — LIZ SHEELEY

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACKIE RICCIARDI

Cheng Wins Grant to Continue Breakthrough Imaging Research

THE MAGAZINE OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

engineering leadership advisory board John E. Abele Founder & Director, Boston Scientific

William I. Huyett CFO, Cyclerion

Jill Albertelli, ‘91 Vice President, Quality, Pratt & Whitney

Dean L. Kamen, Hon.’06 President & Founder, DEKA Research & Development Corp.

Omar Ali ’96 Director of Operations, Petra Engineering Industries Co. Adel Al-Saleh ’87 CEO, T-Systems Board Member, Deutsche Telekom Tye Brady ’90 Chief Technologist, Amazon Robotics Deborah Caplan ’90 Executive VP, Human Resources & Corporate Services, NextEra Energy Roger A. Dorf ’70 Former Vice President, Wireless Group, Cisco Systems Brian Dunkin ’85 Chief Medical Officer, Boston Scientific Endoscopy, Global Vanessa Feliberti ’93 Distinguished Engineer, Substrate Platform, Microsoft Joseph Frassica, MED’88 Chief Medical Officer & Head of Research, the Americas, Philips Healthcare Ronald G. Garriques ’86 CEO and Chairman, Gee Holdings LLC Joseph Healey ’88 Senior Managing Director, HealthCor Management LP

Anand Krishnamurthy ’92,’96 President and CEO, Affirmed Networks Ezra D. Kucharz ’90 Chief Business Officer, DraftKings Inc. Abhijit Kulkarni ‘93,‘97 VP, Research and Technology, Medtronic, Inc. Antoinette Leatherberry ‘85 Principal, Retired, Deloitte Consulting Trustee, Boston University Nick Lippis ’84,’89 President, Lippis Enterprises Inc. Andy Marsh ’83 Chief Operating Officer, Dynavac Kathleen McLaughlin ‘87 President, Walmart Foundation, Chief Sustainability Officer, Walmart Inc. Manuel Mendez ‘91 CEO, Quotient Limited Rao Mulpuri ’92,’96 CEO, View, Inc. Girish Navani ’91 CEO, eClinicalWorks

Anton Papp ’90 Vice President & Head, Corporate Development, Ping Identity Liam Quinn ’90 Sr. Vice President, Sr. Fellow, Dell Computer Corporation Sharad Rastogi ’91 Chief Product Officer, JLL Kimberly Samaha ‘89 CEO, Born Global LLC George M. Savage ’81 Former Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder, Digital Health Binoy K. Singh, MD’89 Associate Chief of Cardiology, Lenox Hill Hospital, North Shore LIJ Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan ’00 Senior Director, Product, LinkedIn Corporation Former CEO & Founder, Drawbridge

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.

John Tegan ’88 President and CEO, Communication Technology Services LLC Francis Troise ’87 Co-CEO, Pico Quantitative William Weiss ’83,’97 Vice President & General Manager, General Dynamics-C4 Systems

facebook.com/ BUCollegeofENG

@BUCollegeofENG

engineering west coast alumni leadership council Christopher Brousseau ’91 Partner, IBM Cognitive Process Services

Michele Iacovone CGS’86,’89 Vice President, Chief Architect, Intuit Inc.

Gregory Cordrey ’88 Partner, Jeffer Mangles Butler & Mitchell LLP

Tyler Kohn ’98 Director, Software Engineering, Ghost Locomotion

Claudia Arango Dunsby ’92 Vice President, Operations, Hybridge IT Richard Fuller ’88 Microlocation Lead, OmniTrail Technologies Timothy Gardner ’00 Founder & CEO, Riffyn Inc. Roger A. Hajjar ’88 Chief Technical Officer, Prysm Inc. Mark Hilderbrand ’87 Managing Director, Housatonic Partners Bettina Briz-Himes ’86 Director, Technology Alliances, GoPro Kent W. Hughes ’79 Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Verizon

Yitao Liao ’10,’11 Chief Technology Officer, RayVio Corporation Martin Lynch ’82 Chief Operating Officer, Freewire Technologies Daniel C. Maneval ’82 Former Vice President, Pharmacology & Safety Assessment, Halozyme Therapeutics Beatriz Mendez-Lora ’88 President, M-P Consultants Xu Ning ’08,‘09 Engineering Manager, Uber, Inc.

senior associate dean for finance and administration Wynter Duncanson

Sanjay Prasad ’86,’87 Principal, Prasad IP John Scaramuzzo ’87 Former Senior Vice President, SanDisk Inc. (Western Digital) Gregory Seiden ’80 Former Vice President, Applications Integration, Oracle Corp. Dylan P. Steeg ’95 Vice President of Business Development, Aible Francis Tiernan ’70 Former President, Anritsu Company

Phone: 617-353-2800 Michael Seele

editor

Kenneth R. Lutchen

assistant dean for outreach & diversity

Patrick L. Kennedy

dean

Solomon R. Eisenberg

Lisa Drake

senior associate dean for academic programs

assistant dean for development & alumni relations

Rich Barlow, Jessica Colarossi, Dana Ferrante, Kat J. McAlpine, John O’Rourke, Eliza Shaw, Liz Sheeley

Elise Morgan

ENGINEER is produced for the alumni and

Boston University Creative Services

associate dean for research and faculty development Thomas D. C. Little

associate dean for educational initiatives

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Sandip Patidar ’90 Founder and Managing Partner, Titanium Capital Partners

Richard Lally

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Anthony Pecore ’95 Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Franklin Templeton Investments

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.

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Support our Summer Term Alumni Research Scholars (STARS) with a gift to the College of Engineering Fund. Visit bu.edu/eng/alumni/give to make your gift.

The STARS program provides paid positions for outstanding undergraduates doing research with faculty mentors over the summer.