Tufts School of Engineering Annual Report 2021 by tuftsengineer

Annual Report 2021

Table of Contents Feature: Community Response to COVID-19

Selected Faculty Achievements

Selected Student and Alumni Achievements

Undergraduate and Graduate Education

Selected Research Highlights

Faculty Recruitment

Advancement and Outreach

Diversity

Engineering Education

Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Innovation and Management

Inspirational Gifts

Inside front cover: Jack and Jan Derby’s generous $10 million gift named Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts and the Jack and Jan Derby Lobby in Joyce Cummings Center. Learn more on page 13. On the cover: Mechanical engineering major Javier Hurtado programs components of an Arduino smart toy kit during EN1: Introduction to Engineering. This year, Tufts School of Engineering courses combined physically distanced in-person instruction with hands-on projects, Zoom discussions, and virtual activities. Principal photography: Anna Miller and Alonso Nichols, Tufts Photography Note: All data in this report accurate as of August 2021.

Dean’s Message Dear colleagues, I’m exceptionally proud of Tufts School of Engineering students, faculty, and staff and their collective response to a singular year. We welcomed students back to campus in the fall and conducted classes and labs through a mix of in-person and online instruction as our community diligently followed state and university guidelines on social distancing, contact tracing, and wearing face coverings. As a School this year, we served our communities, pioneered innovative research, and helped to make the world a better place. Dean Jianmin Qu

This has been a challenging year due to the pandemic. As the School continues to move forward, it is with bittersweet feelings that I say this will be my last message as the Dean of the School of Engineering, as I will be leaving Tufts at the end of August to become Provost at Stevens Institute of Technology. Six years ago, you welcomed me to the Tufts community; your steadfast support has made my time here the most enjoyable period of my career. Together, we have made transformative changes in many aspects of the School of Engineering. We now have the most diverse undergraduate population in the school’s history, both in terms of race and socioeconomic background. Over the last six years, the School has invested significant effort and resources to improve diversity at all school levels and to foster an environment of inclusion. That critical work continued during academic year (AY) 2020-2021 with the hiring of diversity program administrators, the launch of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Colloquium series, and offering new courses and resources to educators and students alike. Faculty were recognized this year for outstanding research, scholarship, and lifetime achievement in their fields. In a momentous honor, Stern Family Professor of Engineering, Distinguished Professor, and Department Chair David Kaplan was inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. In the past two years alone, Professor Kaplan and members of his lab have developed novel 3D tissue models, molded silk into new products, and made inroads into the quest to grow meat from animal cells. This year, School of Engineering researchers advanced our understanding of climate change, cellular agriculture, and machine learning recommendations, to name just a few disciplines. Faculty and students developed eco-friendly manufacturing techniques for an alternative to animal leather, designed lipidoid nanoparticles that could improve the efficacy of therapeutic cancer vaccines and nanoparticles that can deliver gene-editing tools to specific tissues and organs, and created metamaterials that manipulate microwave energy and new smart materials that can be controlled by light alone. In AY 2020, our undergraduate and graduate programs continued to grow in leaps and bounds. The School launched two new online offerings: an MS in Data Science and a postbaccalaureate certificate in Computer Science. The School of Engineering received 5,869 undergraduate applications this year — a 28% increase over the record number of AY 2019. Last year, the School saw a 42% increase in MS applications over the previous year, and applications are on track to improve upon that record number again this year. Six years is a short timeframe. Leaving at this point seems too soon; however, I feel content that the School is in a better place than when I started, and I have full confidence that the School will continue its upward trajectory. It has been an honor and privilege to serve as Dean of Engineering at Tufts. Your support and camaraderie have made a world of difference for me professionally and personally. Tufts will forever occupy a special place in my heart. Sincerely,

Jianmin Qu Dean, Tufts School of Engineering Karol Family Professor engineering.tufts.edu

Community Response to COVID-19 People across the globe continued to come together this year to address the COVID-19 pandemic. At Tufts, students were invited to return to campus in person and students, faculty, and staff completed a successful academic year with the use of new protocols like testing, physical distancing, face coverings, and vaccination. With some students unable to return to campus or needing to isolate after exposure to COVID-19, faculty quickly adapted to offer hybrid classes with both in-person and virtual elements. From Zoom discussion pods and Slack chats to make-at-home kits to podcasts and videos, faculty and students got creative this year. The School of Engineering community continued to give back and to conduct research related to COVID-19. Professor Helen Suh of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) led a study of camps for children that remained open during the summer of 2020, to determine the effectiveness of everyday measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 among children and staff within camp environments. The researchers found that face coverings were key and that coronavirus spread reflected community spread. MS student Tom Ribeiro of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and colleagues developed an award-winning app to help users understand their risk of contracting COVID-19. The team’s app, called Covis, won first place in two rounds of the MIT COVID-19 Challenge’s Beat the Pandemic I and II — virtual hackathons that addressed pressing issues rising from the COVID-19 crisis. Helen Suh

2021 Annual Report | School of Engineering

A Network of Support On the one-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, senior Jared Jaramillo of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) looks back at the ways that the community stepped up to help underrepresented, first-generation, and low-income students at Tufts when students returned home in 2020. I think shock and disbelief were the biggest feelings that everyone shared when we first got the email about the university closing down. There was a couple of hours of what I would call a standstill, in the sense of asking myself and others: “What is going on?” But because money was allocated, students were able to get a huge amount of support. From the FIRST Resource Center, we heard things like: “We’re buying boxes. Just pack all your stuff. We’ll figure out where to put it.” Or: “We know a flight back home costs a lot of money—no problem. We will help pay for your ticket.” That level of support ended up being very helpful. What I remember most clearly now is how, even in this chaotic time, everyone really helped out so that students could stay calm and get home. Our engineering professors understood what we were going through and were lenient about the assignments that had been expected from us. The students helped each other out; I would drive people to the airport and help those who were lucky enough to find a storage locker move their belongings. As engineers, we often struggle through difficult patches with projects and assignments. COVID-19 took that struggle to a different level of reality. Now, it wasn’t just academics, but real life. To see how people—staff, professors, peers, and students—rose to meet that difficulty was extraordinary. We were fortunate to have people who understood that there are things more important right now than finishing a project or a homework assignment. It came down to “Let’s get you taken care of. Let’s help take care of each other.” Read more at go.tufts.edu/jaramillo

Jared Jaramillo

engineering.tufts.edu

Selected Faculty Achievements Faculty were recognized by associations at the top of their fields this year. Stern Family Professor of Engineering David Kaplan of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of his contributions to silk-based materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Election to the National Academies is among the most prestigious professional recognitions available to engineers, scientists, and medical experts. Professor Emmanuel Tzanakakis of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE) was named to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows. Professor Shafiqul Islam (CEE) was elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. McDonnell Family Bridge Professor Milo Koretsky (ChBE) received the Donald R. Woods Lectureship for Lifetime Achievement in Chemical Engineering Pedagogy, awarded by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Professor and Dean of Graduate Education Karen Panetta of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) received an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Member and Geographic Activities Leadership Award for her outstanding service to IEEE. Associate Professor Douglas Matson (ME) was named chair of the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory User Advisory Committee, which provides user input about the management of ISS National Laboratory resources. Professor of the Practice Ronald Lasser (ECE) and Associate Professor Matthew Panzer (ChBE) each received the Henry and Madeline Fischer Award in recognition of their stellar teaching, as voted by Tufts engineering seniors.

Milo Koretsky

Karen Panetta

David Kaplan

Emmanuel Tzanakakis

Shafiqul Islam

Doug Matson

Ronald Lasser

Matthew Panzer

2021 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Faculty members’ groundbreaking research won national attention. With funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, co-primary investigators Professor Shafiqul Islam and Assistant Professor Jonathan Lamontagne (CEE) and Associate Professor Remco Chang and Professor Abani Patra of the Department of Computer Science (CS) launched BigData@Tufts, a new interdisciplinary project that will teach engineers, scientists, and policymakers to extract actionable information from data. Assistant Professor Prashant Deshlahra (ChBE) received an NSF CAREER Award to further his research on catalyst performance. Assistant Research Professor Neelakshi Hudda and Professor John Durant (CEE) were featured in a PBS NOVA documentary, The Great Electric Airplane Race, discussing their research on air traffic pollution. Four faculty members — Daniele Lantagne (CEE), Matthew Panzer (ChBE), Tom Vandervelde (ECE), and Qiaobing Xu (BME) — were promoted to full professor. Assistant Professor James Van Deventer (ChBE) was named the Bright Futures Assistant Professor and Professor Milo Koretsky (ChBE) joined the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences as the McDonnell Family Bridge Professor. Professor Jeffrey Foster was named chair of the Department of Computer Science, Professor Emmanuel Tzanakakis was named chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Professor Tom Vandervelde was named chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Jonathan Lamontagne

Remco Chang

Abani Patra

Prashant Deshlahra

Neelakshi Hudda

John Durant

Daniele Lantagne

Tom Vandervelde

Qiaobing Xu

James Van Deventer

Jeffrey Foster

engineering.tufts.edu

Selected Student and Alumni Achievements Tufts engineering students and alumni are conducting world-changing research and academic work. Greg Berumen (ChBE), Laurel Howell (BME), and Olivia Martin (ME) were named Fellows of the 2021 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which awards exceptional graduate students nationwide. Rachel McGinn (BME) received a Goldwater Scholarship Award in recognition of her work researching triple negative breast cancer in Assistant Professor Madeleine Oudin’s lab. Kyle Flynn (CEE) and Professor Emeritus Steven Greg Berumen Chapra received the 2021 Samuel Arnold Greeley Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Environmental and Water Resources Institute. From engineering to athletics to entrepreneurship, our students excel. Companies founded by students during their time at Tufts have gone on to success, with ZwitterCo receiving $5.9 million in financing and Cellens joining the NSF I-Corps program and earning first prize and the Alira Health Prize at the MedTech IGNITE accelerator. Alumnus Roger Gu (BME) became the first Tufts student or alum to ever qualify for the U.S. Olympic team swimming trials. Tufts engineering students have risen to the occasion to provide remarkable service in ways that go well beyond the classroom. Amma Agyei (BME) was elected the first Black female president of the Tufts Community Union Senate. Myisha Majumder (CEE) was named to the 2020 class of ASCE New Faces of Civil Engineering — College, recognizing her work on the Tufts ASCE student chapter’s equity team in addition to her academic excellence. Zijing “Sylvia” Chen (BME) and René LaPointe Jameson (CEE) received Tufts Presidential Awards for Civic Life in recognition of their outstanding impacts on communities near and far. Engineering students continue to make tremendous impacts after leaving Tufts. President Joe Biden named alumna Gina McCarthy (CEE) the White House National Climate Advisor. She is now Amma Agyei tasked with coordinating the administration’s domestic climate agenda. After founding health monitoring venture Lura Health as Tufts students, alumni Noah Hill (CS) and Daniel Weinstein (BME) were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and Weinstein was named one of BostInno’s 25 Under 25. This year, alumni Chiamaka Chima (ECE) and Ryan Pandya (ChBE) received Tufts University Alumni Association Awards. Double Jumbo Chima works as an analog design engineer at Intel Corporation, while Pandya is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Perfect Day, a food company that creates animal-free dairy products with a green footprint.

2021 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Undergraduate and Graduate Education Undergraduate education: Despite the impact of COVID-19 requiring more remote learning opportunities, faculty and staff remained focused on providing unique experiences that included distributed learning via various online platforms. Hands-on learning persisted even for courses with significant laboratory components, with some labs conducted at home using kits provided to remote students. While the school looks forward to resuming fully in-person instruction, the efforts of the past year in creating online content and more pedagogical methods for remote students will not be abandoned as they can be used to broaden student access to the School’s educational offerings. Undergraduate programs reached their highest application rate ever this year, with 5,869 applications — a 28% increase over last year’s banner numbers. The acceptance rate was 11.6%. The Class of 2025 is comprised of 49% women, 48% U.S. citizens who are people of color, 12% international students, and 16% first-generation college students. Need-based financial aid remains an important part of the school’s undergraduate admissions outcomes, with 39% of the admitted class receiving a Tufts grant. Graduate education: SOE saw a record-breaking 41.6% increase in MS applications in 2020 and is on track to build upon that success with a projected 4% increase for Fall 2021. PhD applications for Fall 2021 are also up 24% over Fall 2020. The SOE continued to develop its online graduate programs in 2021 with two new offerings added this year — an MS in Data Science and a postbaccalaureate certificate in Computer Science.

Undergraduate Applications Number of undergraduate applications

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Matriculation year

engineering.tufts.edu

Number of graduate applications

Graduate Applications 3000

2000

1000

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Matriculation year

Enrollment and Degrees Awarded 2020-21 Enrollment

Engineering Degrees Granted1

Engineering Program

PhD

Architectural Studies

—

Bioengineering

—

Biomedical Engineering*

170

Biotechnology Engineering

—

Chemical Engineering*

103

Civil Engineering*

—

Civil and Environmental Engineering***

—

Cognitive Science**

—

Computer Engineering*

—

Computer Science (On Campus)*

208

Computer Science (Online)

—

Computer Science (from School of Arts and Sciences)

378

—

124

—

Data Science (On Campus)

—

Data Science (Online)

—

Electrical Engineering*

—

Electrical and Computer Engineering****

—

Engineering Management (On Campus)

—

188

—

Engineering Management (Online)2

—

Engineering Physics

—

Engineering Psychology/Human Factors Engineering

—

Engineering Science

—

Environmental Engineering*

—

Environmental Health

—

Human-Robot Interaction**

—

Innovation and Management

—

Materials Science and Engineering**

—

Mechanical Engineering*

271

Offshore Wind Energy Engineering2

—

Engineering

—

No Major

—

TOTAL (Engineering only):

1118

601

276

209

289

2021 Annual Report | School of Engineering

—

*Engineering degree programs accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) or the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). ** Joint degree program. Students are only counted once for the sake of this chart, but are also assigned to a home in the School of Engineering, the School of Arts and Sciences, or The Fletcher School, depending on program. *** For BS degrees, Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering are two separate degrees. For graduate degrees, Civil and Environmental Engineering are listed together. **** For BS and MS degrees, Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering are two separate degrees. For PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering are listed together. First majors, August 2020 to May 2021. Second majors and minors are not included. 1

New program.

Selected Research Highlights This fiscal year, externally-sponsored research expenditures in the School of Engineering totaled $34.1 million, the highest in the School’s history. Faculty submitted 331 new and supplemental funding requests, and invention disclosures from the School of Engineering continued to make up nearly half of the university’s total technology transfer activity. Energy, water, and the environment: In research published in Nature Communications, Assistant Professor Jonathan Lamontagne (CEE) and colleagues found that not only can localized water shortages impact the global economy, but changes in global demand can have ripple effects in river basins across the globe. In an NSF-funded project co-led by Professor Lenore Cowen (CS), researchers are using data science methods to understand the exact factors that determine whether corals will be more or less resilient to stresses caused by climate change. Assistant Professor Prashant Deshlahra (ChBE) received an NSF CAREER Award to study the effects of surface coverage and catalyst composition on vinyl acetate synthesis.

When corals are healthy, they look like these, in shallow water at Baker reef in the Pacific

Prashant Deshlahra

A new computer model of climate effects and human economic activity reveals weaknesses and strengths of hundreds of river and water basins across the globe, as we face increasing levels of climate stress

Human health and bioengineering: Stern Family Professor of Engineering David Kaplan (BME) and his lab received a $375,000 award from Merck’s competitive worldwide grant program. The team’s proposal for a new concept in bioreactor design to grow food was selected as the Merck competition winner in the category of cultured food. Assistant Professor Madeleine Oudin (BME) Madeleine Oudin and her team found that specific proteins in the extracellular matrix may play an important role in triggering the invasion of cancer cells in the breast fat tissue of obese individuals. Human breast cancer tumor (blue) near fat tissue (red), with abundant Collagen VI (green). Photo — Sydney Conner, Oudin Lab

engineering.tufts.edu

A prototype robot with an ultraviolet C germicidal lamp at the top

Scanning electron microscopy of threads coated with electrically conducting carbon-based ink

Human-technology interface: Professor Sameer Sonkusale (ECE) and a team of researchers that included undergraduate student and first author Yiwen Jiang (ECE) created thread sensors that can be attached to skin to measure movement in real time, with potential implications for tracking health and performance. Professor Matthias Scheutz (CS), Professor Diane Souvaine (CS), and visiting scholar Matias Korman (CS) collaborated on a better and cheaper ultraviolet C light device for disinfecting indoor spaces. Intelligent systems: Professor Soha Hassoun (CS) and Assistant Professor Liping Liu (CS) Yiwen Jiang received funding from the National Institutes of Health to investigate machine learning techniques that could advance discoveries in biomedical research. Associate Professor Mark Hempstead (ECE) and colleagues were nominated for the ISPASS 2021 Best Paper Award for their research on distributing deep learning recommendation models across multiple servers.

Liping Liu

Mark Hempstead

2021 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Soha Hassoun

Chris Swan

Ellise LaMotte

Learning science: Associate Professor Chris Swan (CEE) is working with Ellise LaMotte of the Center for STEM Diversity (CSD), Associate Professor Philip Starks (Biology), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute on a self-study initiative in support of diversity and inclusion in the School of Engineering. John R. Beaver Professor Chris Rogers, with Research Associate Professor Merredith Portsmore of the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) and Assistant Professor Brian Gravel (Education), received a LEGO Foundation Award to promote “thinking like an engineer” for K-12 students.

Chris Rogers

Merredith Portsmore

Invention Disclosures 90 81 72

■ Engineering

■ University-wide

63 54 45 36 27 18 9 0 FY01

FY02

FY03

FY04

FY05

FY06

FY07

FY08

FY09

FY10

FY11

FY12

FY13

FY14

FY15

FY16

FY17

FY18

FY19

FY20

engineering.tufts.edu

FY21

Faculty Recruitment Tufts School of Engineering’s number of tenure-track faculty climbed to 92. Seven new full-time faculty members joined the School in academic year 2020-21. New hires for academic years 2021 and 2022 include: Trevion Henderson Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Trevion Henderson earned his PhD in higher education from the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. His research examines Trevion Henderson how students’ in- and out-of-classroom experiences affect their learning experiences, persistence, and long-term goals in engineering. Milod Kazerounian Assistant Teaching Professor, Computer Science Milod Kazerounian completed his PhD at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied programming languages. In particular, his research explores ways to introduce expressive type systems to dynamic languages like Ruby. Saeed Mehraban Assistant Professor, Computer Science Saeed Mehraban obtained his PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. His research interests include quantum computation and information, and their connections with computer science and physics.

Milod Kazerounian

Greses Pérez Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Greses Pérez received her PhD in science education from Saeed Mehraban Stanford University. She specializes in the interdisciplinary study of language and cognition for students who experience a cultural and linguistic mismatch between the practices of their communities and those in engineering and science. Greses Pérez

Faculty Growth and Composition 140 120

■ Tenured/Tenure Track ■ Professors of the Practice ■ Lecturers ■ Teaching Professors

100 80 60 40 20 0 04-05 05-06

06-07

07-08

08-09

09-10

10-11

11-12

2021 Annual Report | School of Engineering

12-13

13-14

14-15

15-16

16-17

17-18

18-19

19-20

20-21

Advancement and Outreach Development: The School of Engineering Advancement team raised over $26 million in FY21, easily achieving its fundraising goal of $10.3 million. This is the fifth year in a row of raising eight-figure philanthropic support for the School, thanks to an incredible donor base. During the campaign there has been an increase in donors in all gift ranges up to $5 million, which speaks to the strength of the School’s outreach and the belief in its educational mission. The School of Engineering exceeded its updated Brighter World campaign goal of $100 million, raising $124 million. Over 8,800 donors have contributed to the School in this campaign with an increase in all gift ranges. Corporate and Foundation Relations: This year, corporate and foundation achievement for the School of Engineering totaled $2.8 million. Funding included a $1 million award to Research Associate Professor Merredith Portsmore, director of the CEEO, for her research on playing with robots to build STEAM capacity. For the fifth year in a row, New Harvest renewed its support of graduate students conducting research on bioengineering food for the future in the lab of Stern Family Professor of Engineering David Kaplan (BME). Professor of the Practice Eric Hines (CEE), Kentaro Tsutsumi Faculty Fellow, received a $200,000 gift from Kingsbury, Inc. to support a newly hired faculty fellow researching tribology in wind turbines. Alumni Outreach: The Office of Alumni Engagement, University Advancement, and University Communications and Marketing provided a number of digital engagement opportunities for engineering alumni this year, including faculty webinars and Brighter World campaign events. The Tufts Entrepreneurial Network hosted virtual discussions on topics ranging from radical innovation to women in entrepreneurship. Career Center: Tufts Career Center continued to help engineering students prepare for the workplace, with advisors providing consultations to engineering undergraduate and graduate students. With events moving online this year, the Career Center was able to connect more students and alumni than ever at the annual Engineering Student-Alumni Networking Night.

The School of Engineering received a transformational gift of $10 million from Jack and Jan Derby to name Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts and the Jack and Jan Derby Lobby in Joyce Cummings Center

Through her work as director of the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, Research Associate Professor Merredith Portsmore focuses on how K-12 students engage in learning engineering and in learning to design solutions to ill-defined problems

engineering.tufts.edu

Diversity The School of Engineering has invested significant effort and resources to improve diversity at all levels and foster an environment of inclusion. This year, the School created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Standing Committee comprised of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. In addition, the School used targeted donor gifts to hire diversity program administrators (DPA) who manage departmentlevel projects related to increasing the representation and inclusion of underrepresented groups. The first DPA is now working with the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, developing programs and gathering data, and the second will focus on the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering. The School also launched a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Colloquium Series with prominent speakers like Dr. Gilda Barabino and Dr. Karl Reid.

As a BEST scholar, Zharia Akeem is double majoring in computer science and biomedical engineering

The Center for STEM Diversity (CSD) supported students through its four flagship programs this year: Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts (BEST), Redefining the Image of Science and Engineering (RISE), STEM Ambassadors, and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP). The BEST program graduated 12 seniors, the majority of whom went on to careers in industry. A generous gift from a donor allowed the CSD to support BEST scholars in taking summer classes, and the program welcomed its twelfth cohort of scholars with an entirely virtual program during the summer of 2021.

Through the STEM Ambassadors program, 17 first-generation college students worked with high school classrooms to deliver virtual presentations on science and engineering topics and to talk to local students about college. Nine new ambassadors joined the program in 2021. The RISE first-year advising seminar supported 19 new students this year, with training focused on providing resources and tools to optimize their social and emotional well-being and their academic success. The LSAMP program supported 10 students, all of whom partnered with faculty mentors performing research, and four GEM Fellows — who receive support from the CSD as they pursue graduate degrees — graduated this year. Myisha Majumder worked with the Tufts ASCE student chapter to cofound the chapter’s equity team, which champions diversity, equity, and inclusion in the CEE department

2021 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Engineering Education This year, the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) piloted a learning assistant model for a justice-based engineering and data science initiative. The project seeks to make the social, political, and economic context of engineering decisions and assumptions visible in the curriculum for introductory engineering classes. Tufts CEEO developed justice-based engineering and data science modules and worked with equity learning assistants to implement them in the Introduction to Computing in Engineering course. Tufts CEEO continued to leverage its expertise in engineering outreach to share knowledge with educators and school systems. The center collaborated with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to offer an online course for BPS elementary and middle school science teachers and specialists to strengthen science learning, and offered virtual coffee hours for teachers, Novel Engineering workshops, and workshops on engineering design and coding.

Children working on an engineering project in Nepal, part of a cross-cultural sharing project that Tufts CEEO conducted with educators in Nepal. Photo: Anu Shrestha

Funded by a $1 million grant from the LEGO Foundation, Tufts CEEO is working with colleagues on a new project that will partner with organizations in Brazil, Kenya, and Rwanda to co-develop tools and training that can prepare students to be the next generation of changemakers. The Tech and Play initiative has three primary goals: developing communities that support play in engineering, providing tools and research on how students learn, and supplying teacher professional development.

Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences This year, the Center for Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences (CABCS) temporarily shifted its emphasis from in-person data collection to predictive modeling and simulation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Center fully reopened in the spring of 2021 and is now executing experimental protocols in studies examining biosensing, performance prediction, and the test and evaluation of novel performance enhancement techniques. Highlights from the past year include developing new algorithms and software tools to predict human performance variation under conditions of stress, sleep loss, dehydration, thermal load, and physical encumbrance, and opening a new cutting-edge virtual reality facility with high-definition 3D display technologies and an omnidirectional treadmill. The Center also transitioned algorithms, software tools, and knowledge products to seven different external stakeholders across the Department of Defense.

engineering.tufts.edu

Innovation and Management This year, Tufts Gordon Institute (TGI) launched a Data Analytics for Managers MasterTrack Certificate in partnership with online learning platform Coursera, as part of an expansive effort to deliver practical, thought-provoking knowledge in a technology-driven world. Recent graduates of the MS in Innovation and Management (MSIM) program landed high-impact jobs at leading companies in a variety of industries, including Amazon Robotics, Google, Procter & Gamble, and Takeda, while others launched their own startups to bring new products and services to market. TGI also continued to partner with the School of Contestants, judges, and audience members at the virtual $100k New Ventures Competition Engineering to offer a dual degree program, providing graduate students with the opportunity to earn two master’s degrees in just two years. Nearly 40% of all applicants who completed their application to the MSIM program were pursuing a dual degree.

Students from Tufts Gordon Institute celebrate Commencement with TGI executive director Kevin Oye

This year TGI launched the Tufts Transformative Leadership Community (TLC), a resource for workshops, non-credit short courses, and more, all focused on empowering career growth and next-level learning for technology professionals. Derby Entrepreneurship Center co-hosted Tufts University’s inaugural Social Impact Entrepreneurship Ideathon.

Infrastructure Development Joyce Cummings Center is a new seven-story structure going up on the corner of College and Boston Avenues, housing classrooms, offices, event space, computer labs, and a café. It will be the new home of the Department of Computer Science and Tufts Gordon Institute, among other Tufts departments and centers, and its opening will make space available in Halligan Hall and the Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex for more School of Engineering personnel and teams. Tenants are expected to begin moving in to Joyce Cummings Center when construction is completed in fall 2021. Tufts University has begun planning for a new residence hall for undergraduate students, which is expected to be built within four years. Lab renovations have been completed for two new faculty members — Assistant Professor Marco Donato (ECE) and Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor Aseema Mohanty (ECE) — and will soon be completed for Assistant Professor Nathaniel Eagan (ChBE).

2021 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Construction of Joyce Cummings Center, a new 148,000-square-foot multifunction building generously funded by the Cummings Foundation, is expected to wrap up in the fall of 2021

Inspirational Gifts » $10 million gift to name Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts and the Jack and Jan Derby Lobby in Joyce Cummings Center » $1.2 million gift to support the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) » $558,000 gift to establish a new engineering undergraduate scholarship from an Engineering Board of Advisors alumnus from the Class of 1967 and spouse » $500,000 gift to support financial aid and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice efforts from an Engineering Board of Advisors alumnus from the Class of 1972 and spouse » $483,000 in charitable gift annuities to support School of Engineering capital needs and projects from an alumnus of the Class of 1956 » $300,000 estate gift to provide unrestricted support to the School of Engineering from an alumnus from the Class of 1983 and spouse » $300,000 estate gift to provide unrestricted support to the School of Engineering from an alumnus from the Class of 1985 and spouse » $250,000 estate gift to support an engineering undergraduate scholarship from an alumnus from the Class of 1966 » $250,000 naming gift in Joyce Cummings Center from an Engineering Board of Advisors alumnus from the Class of 1969 and spouse » $189,000 gift to support COVID-19 department efforts and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice initiatives from a friend of Tufts » $165,000 gift to support the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from an alumnus from the Class of 1970 » $135,000 gift to establish a new engineering undergraduate scholarship from an alumnus from the Class of 1971

Learn more about the School of Engineering at engineering.tufts.edu

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Tufts School of Engineering Annual Report 2021

Articles inside

Innovation and Management

Selected Research Highlights

Inspirational Gifts

Advancement and Outreach

Feature: Community Response to COVID-19

Diversity