Tufts School of Engineering Annual Report 2022

Annual Report 2022

Table of Contents Selected Faculty Achievements

2

Selected Student and Alumni Achievements

4

Global, Undergraduate, and Graduate Education

5

Selected Research Highlights

7

Cellular Agriculture at Tufts

10

Faculty Recruitment

12

Advancement and Outreach

13

Diversity

14

Engineering Education

15

Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences

15

Innovation, Management, and Entrepreneurship

16

Infrastructure Development

16

Inspirational Gifts

17

On the cover: Students pass through the atrium of Joyce Cummings Center, Tufts’ newest hub for learning, research, and collaboration. The six-story multidisciplinary building on the Medford campus is now home to classrooms, offices, labs, and meeting space, following a generous gift from trustee emeritus Bill Cummings, A58, H06, J97P, and M97P, and his wife, Joyce, H17, J97P, M97P, through their Cummings Foundation.

Inside front cover: In the Assistive Agent Behavior and Learning Lab, led by Assistant Professor Elaine Schaertl Short, researchers like PhD candidate Isaac Sheidlower (pictured) seek to make robots more useful. The group works at the intersection of assistive technology and social robotics, with a particular interest in robots interacting with users under-served by typical human-robot interaction research.

Principal photography: Anna Miller, Alonso Nichols, and Jake Belcher for Tufts Photography Note: All data in this report accurate as of August 2022.

Dean’s Message Dear School of Engineering community and colleagues, I’m pleased to extend my greetings to you in my first annual report as Dean of the Tufts University School of Engineering. I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with many of you while serving as Dean Ad Interim this year. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, your experience, and your new ideas. As I now take up the School’s permanent deanship and plan for the future, this is also an opportunity to look back on what we’ve accomplished over the past year.

As we review academic year 2021-2022, I am struck by the resilience of our students, faculty, staff, and wider community. The School as a whole adapted to shifting norms and public health requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic and committed to keeping each other safe. For the first time since 2019, the university hosted in-person Commencement celebrations on The Green this spring. In addition to honoring the Class of 2022, we also welcomed members of the Class of 2020 back to campus for a belated and deeply joyous Commencement. I was delighted to celebrate with so many members of both classes.

Dean Kyongbum Lee

Our community strengthened its ongoing commitment to fostering safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for all. We continued to update engineering curricula to be more inclusive of both teaching pedagogy and real-world content that reflects diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, and we welcomed speakers like former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin for our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Colloquium Series. In fall 2021, we were joined by more than 400 international students, representing 51 countries.

School of Engineering researchers made great strides this year, advancing the future of disciplines like offshore wind energy engineering, cellular agriculture, data science, and cancer therapeutics, to name just a few. Faculty were recognized nationally and globally for exceptional contributions to their fields, including an interdisciplinary Tufts research team that received the Royal Chemistry Society’s 2022 Faraday Division Horizon Prize, and Professor and Dean of Graduate Education Karen Panetta, who was named a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Inventors this year.

I’m happy to apply the word “unprecedented” to some positive news: our programs continued their pattern of unprecedented levels of interest. This year, the School of Engineering reached new record highs in both undergraduate and graduate applications. Building on the School’s strides toward gender equity in recent years, 50% of the incoming undergraduate Class of 2026 are women. In addition to all the students who will be joining us in the fall, I’m also pleased to welcome numerous new faculty members who bring a deep commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in STEM fields in addition to their tremendous teaching and research skills.

I am thankful for all of your hard work in intentionally building a welcoming community through our personal and collective endeavors this year, whether through teaching, research, advising, or administrative and planning work.

Going forward I’m honored to build on the legacy of former Deans Jianmin Qu and Linda Abriola, who led the School to such success. In the year ahead, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office — I look forward to working with you and engineering a bright future together.

Sincerely,

Kyongbum Lee Dean, Tufts School of Engineering Karol Family Professor

engineering.tufts.edu

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Selected Faculty Achievements Tufts School of Engineering faculty were recognized this year for outstanding achievements in research and teaching, and for their singular contributions to their disciplines. Assistant Professor Prashant Deshlahra of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE), the late Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos (who was the Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professor in Energy Sustainability when she passed away in 2019), alumnus Georgios Giannakakis (ChBE), and a team from the Tufts Department of Chemistry received the 2022 Faraday Division Horizon Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry for the group’s groundbreaking work on singleatom catalysts. Between 2010-2020, Stern Family Professor of Engineering and Department Chair David Kaplan of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) was among the most highly cited researchers in the world, according to a report released this year by information and analytics firm Clarivate.

Associate Professor Valencia Koomson of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) was elevated to Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Assistant Professor Srivalleesha Mallidi (BME) received a Rising Star Award from the World Molecular Imaging Congress. Associate Professor Douglas Matson of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) was elected Fellow of the American Society of Gravitational Space Research. Professor of the Practice Derek Mess (ChBE) received Tufts’ Seymour Simches Award for Distinguished Teaching and Advising. Professor and Dean of Graduate Education Karen Panetta (ECE) was named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Prashant Deshlahra

Maria Flytzani-Stephopoulos

David Kaplan

Valencia Koomson

Srivalleesha Mallidi

Doug Matson

Derek Mess

Karen Panetta

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2022 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Tufts engineering seniors selected Professor Matthew Panzer (ChBE) and Professor of the Practice Ron Lasser (ECE) as the recipients of the 2022 Henry and Madeline Fischer Award, which recognizes engineering professors who demonstrate teaching excellence and inspire students. Greses Pérez, McDonnell Family Assistant Professor of Engineering Education in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), was recognized as an Emerging Scholar by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Jivko Sinapov of the Department of Computer Science (CS), James Schmolze Assistant Professor, received a Tufts Recognition of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award.

Associate Professor and Dean of Undergraduate Education Chris Swan (CEE) received a 2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award from the United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER), recognizing him as a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of geotechnical engineering.

Associate Professor Robert White (ME) was named an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Professor Emeritus Steven Chapra (CEE) was named Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the highest honor awarded by the organization. Three faculty members — Usman Khan (ECE), Douglas Matson (ME), and Mai Vu (ECE) — were promoted to full professor.

Matthew Panzer

Ronald Lasser

Greses Pérez

Jivko Sinapov

Chris Swan

Robert White

Steven Chapra

Usman Khan

Mai Vu

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Selected Student and Alumni Achievements Tufts engineering students and alumni are changing the world — and beyond, with some work extending into space — through service, research, careers in industry, and more.

Alumni: Bill Edgerton (CEE) received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Underground Construction Association in recognition of his impact across a 50-year career in construction. Thomas Coons, Christopher Simotas, and Brian Barrows (all ME) worked with a team from Tufts’ Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine to fine-tune a new tool for equine health that they first developed as a senior design project in Associate Professor Kristen Wendell’s class.

James Kaklamanos (CEE) received a 2021 USUCGER Early James Kaklamanos Career Educator Award in recognition of his demonstrated excellence in teaching as a faculty member at Merrimack College. Y.A. Liu (ChBE) was honored by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for innovation in green process engineering.

Students: In recognition of their outstanding academic achievement, campus and community participation, and leadership, Amma Agyei (BME), Emma Downey (BME), and Olif Soboka Hordofa (ME) received Tufts Senior Awards. Arrietty Bui (BME), Kyla Levin (ChBE), Tue Nguyen (ME), and Deepti Srinivasan (BME) were named Tufts Laidlaw Scholars, pursuing funded research projects over the course of two consecutive summers.

Avis Carrero (CEE) received a Tufts Presidential Award for his work promoting and supporting communities underrepresented in STEM fields.

Evana Gizzi (CS) developed artificial intelligence software to help NASA repair spacecraft faster and more efficiently. René LaPointe Jameson (CEE) delivered the 2022 Wendell Phillips Address at the Baccalaureate Ceremony. She was the sole undergraduate student selected to speak at 2022 Commencement events, and was only the third engineering major to be chosen for the annual honor since 1988.

Evana Gizzi

4

Rachel McGinn (BME), Sarah Radway (CS and The Fletcher School), and Jessica Rosendorf (ME) were named Fellows of the 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which awards exceptional graduate students nationwide. Christopher Nguyen (BME) received an Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship from SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Farakh Zaman’s (ME) research was recognized by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society with the Virtual Environments Technical Group Best Student Paper Award.

2022 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Global, Undergraduate, and Graduate Education Global education: Tufts Global Education (TGE) provides students in the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences with transformative, intercultural experiences. This year, with significant COVID-19 protocols in place, TGE offered study abroad to 25 engineering majors and more than 350 student participants through signature Tufts Programs Abroad, external partnerships, and summer programs.

A new custom summer program in Pavia, Italy provided 19 students with instruction in Italian language and culture, computer science, and data science alongside cultural excursions

The Tufts@BNU program concluded after two successful years accommodating the urgent needs of 151 Tufts students in China who were unable to travel to the U.S. due to COVID-19 restrictions. Also this year, TGE offered new engineering academic opportunities and expanded partnerships with Queen Mary University of London, University College London, University of Pavia, and CentraléSuperlac. Next year, the university will welcome engineering exchange students from CentraléSuperlac, and 50 Tufts engineering students are projected to participate in study abroad programs and experiences across the globe.

Undergraduate education: The School of Engineering continues to iterate and improve its curricular offerings for undergraduate students. In the first-year engineering course on computations, the School developed a justicebased engineering and data science instruction pedagogy to present computation and data science processes through an equity lens.

This year undergraduate programs received a record-breaking number of applications, with 6,934 applications — an 18% increase over last year’s historic number. The acceptance rate was 9%. The Class of 2026 is comprised of 50% women, 46% U.S. citizens who are people of color, 13% international students, and 16% first-generation college students.

Graduate education: The School of Engineering received 2,909 applications for graduate programs that started in the fall semester of 2021, representing a 10.3% increase over the fall of 2020. When comparing Fall 2021 to Fall 2020, PhD enrollment remained consistent and MS enrollment increased by 23.2%. The School built on its expertise in the field of cellular agriculture and launched a new Certificate in Cellular Agriculture this year.

Undergraduate Applications Number of undergraduate applications

6000

5250

4500

3750

3000

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Matriculation year

engineering.tufts.edu

5

Number of graduate applications

Graduate Applications 3000

2000

1000

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Matriculation year

Enrollment and Degrees Awarded Engineering Program

2020-21 Enrollment

Engineering Degrees Granted1

BS

BS

MS

PhD

MS

PhD

Architectural Studies

2

—

—

0

—

—

Bioengineering

—

34

—

—

13

—

Biomedical Engineering2

180

35

37

39

12

6

Biotechnology Engineering

—

—

12

—

—

0

Chemical Engineering2

108

3

20

26

5

7

Civil Engineering2

86

—

—

17

—

—

Civil and Environmental Engineering4

—

17

34

—

16

2

Cognitive Science

—

—

6

—

—

1

42

11

—

9

4

—

Computer Science (On Campus)2

270

139

73

52

38

4

Computer Science (Online)

—

36

—

—

1

—

Computer Science (from School of Arts and Sciences)

424

—

—

97

—

—

Cybersecurity and Public Policy3

—

18

—

—

6

—

3

Computer Engineering

2

Data Science (On Campus)

49

45

—

10

14

—

Data Science (Online)

—

14

—

—

0

—

Electrical Engineering2

75

46

—

21

15

10

Electrical and Computer Engineering5

—

—

41

—

—

—

Engineering Management (On Campus)

—

114

—

—

62

—

Engineering Management (Online)

—

73

—

—

7

—

Engineering Physics

12

—

—

2

—

—

Engineering Psychology (from School of Arts and Sciences)

72

—

—

22

—

— —

Engineering Science

1

—

—

1

—

Environmental Engineering2

53

—

—

14

—

Environmental Health

5

—

—

1

Human Factors Engineering

65

46

—

9

— —

23

—

Human-Robot Interaction3

—

11

12

—

0

0

Innovation and Management

—

40

—

—

22

—

Materials Science and Engineering3

—

0

13

—

3

1

Mechanical Engineering2

286

41

32

66

22

8

Offshore Wind Energy Engineering

—

8

3

—

5

—

Software Systems Development

—

12

—

—

4

—

Engineering

1

—

—

0

—

—

No Major

6

—

—

7

—

—

TOTAL (Engineering only):

1314

743

284

296

272

40

6

2022 Annual Report | School of Engineering

First majors, August 2021 to May 2022. Second majors and minors are not included.

1

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).

2

Joint degree program.

Students are only counted once for the sake of this chart but are also assigned to a second department in the School of Engineering, the School of Arts and Sciences, or The Fletcher School, depending on program.

3

For BS degrees, Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering are two separate degrees. For graduate degrees, Civil and Environmental Engineering are listed together.

4

For BS and MS degrees, Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering are two separate degrees. For PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering are listed together.

5

Selected Research Highlights This fiscal year, externally-sponsored research expenditures in the School of Engineering totaled $35.27 million, the highest in the School’s history. Faculty submitted 317 new and supplemental funding requests, and invention disclosures from the School of Engineering constituted more than half of the university’s total technology transfer activity.

Energy, water, and the environment: Associate Professor Ayse Asatekin (ChBE) and team developed a new filtering technology that could help curb a drinking water-related disease that affects tens of millions of people worldwide. In research published in Nature Climate Change, Jonathan Lamontagne Deborah Sunter Assistant Professor Jonathan Lamontagne Ayse Asatekin (CEE) and colleagues warned that water, energy, and agriculture systems in African river basins could be put at risk if leaders fail to consider cross-border and global effects of policy decisions. Assistant Professor Deborah Sunter (CEE) and an interdisciplinary team of faculty and undergraduate researchers from Tufts and UMass Amherst found that in high-risk areas in the U.S., affecting some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, flood mitigation projects are less likely to receive federal funding.

Human health and bioengineering: Associate Professor Jeffrey Guasto (ME) and team uncovered a novel mode of cell migration, opening new possibilities in nanomedicine and bioremediation. Assistant Professor Srivalleesha Mallidi (BME) and colleagues utilized photoacoustic nanodroplets to deliver oxygen to hypoxic regions of tumors, to enhance light-based cancer therapies. A team of researchers led by Associate Professor Nikhil Nair (ChBE) leveraged previous work to perform deep mutational scanning and was able to create a detailed sequence-function landscape of the class of enzymes called phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), which has an array of possible agricultural and medicinal applications. In a preclinical model, Professor Qiaobing Xu (BME) and team were able to greatly reduce tumors of a rare genetic lung disease using tiny lipid-based nanoparticles.

Jeffrey Guasto

Srivalleesha Mallidi

Nikhil Nair

Qiaobing Xu

Magnetotactic bacteria are directed to follow an ambient magnetic field.

engineering.tufts.edu

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Lasers in Mohanty’s lab, where research focuses on using nanophotonics and engineered light-matter interactions to control, shape, and sense light.

Human-technology interface: Stern Family Professor in Engineering David Kaplan’s (BME) lab created tattoo-like sensors that reveal blood oxygen levels. The silk-based material beneath skin changes color in response to oxygen, and in the future might be adapted to track glucose and other blood components. As part of a cross-institution team, Professors Soha Hassoun (CS) and Sameer Sonkusale (ECE) received a Multidisciplinary Research Initiative Award from the Department of Defense. The team seeks to develop faster, more efficient, and hybrid computation in microbial bioelectronic systems. Assistant Professor Aseema Mohanty (ECE) received two grants through Scialog: Advancing BioImaging to support the development of miniaturized microscopes for bioimaging using reconfigurable nanophotonic chips.

David Kaplan

8

Soha Hassoun

2022 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Sameer Sonkusale

Aseema Mohanty

Intelligent systems: Associate Professor Valencia Koomson (ECE) and colleagues from the University of Ghana developed an artificial intelligence (AI) based mobile application driven by a genetic algorithm. The app could serve as a personalized weight loss solution, particularly for users in developing countries. Tufts computer scientists including PhD student Nicholas Rabb and Professors Lenore Cowen, JP de Ruiter, and Matthias Scheutz (all CS) developed a computer model that remarkably mirrors the Valencia Koomson Lenore Cowen way misinformation spreads in real life.

The work could provide insight on how to protect people from misinformation that threatens public health and the health of democracy. As part of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s Bits to Bytes program, Professor Igor Sokolov (ME) and industry partner Cellens (a start-up first launched by Tufts Gordon Institute JP de Ruiter Matthias Scheutz Igor Sokolov students) received a grant for a project aiming to further the noninvasive detection of bladder cancer through advanced nanoscale imaging and machine learning analysis.

Learning science: Students in Research Associate Professor Ethan Danahy’s (CEEO) section of Introduction to Engineering worked with high schoolers at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Boston to design robotic games that would be accessible to players with limited hearing.

Ethan Danahy

Invention Disclosures 90 81 72

■ Engineering

■ University-wide

63 54 45 36 27 18 9 0 FY04

FY05

FY06

FY07

FY08

FY09

FY10

FY11

FY12

FY13

FY14

FY15

FY16

FY17

FY18

FY19

FY20

FY21

engineering.tufts.edu

FY22

9

Cellular Agriculture at Tufts Led by the biomedical engineering lab of David Kaplan (BME), Stern Family Professor in Engineering and Distinguished Professor, Tufts is blooming into a global leader in the multidisciplinary field of cellular agriculture — a new sector of bioengineering focused on creating protein-enriched foods derived not from animals, but from animal cells grown in bioreactors.

This year, the cellular agriculture group accepted groundbreaking grants, received a deeply generous gift from a Tufts alum, inked a deal with a food tech startup to help create fish from cells, developed a new certificate program, and launched the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA).

Learn more about TUCCA and Tufts’ industry-leading efforts at cellularagriculture.tufts.edu

Tufts receives USDA grant to develop cultivated meat The team led by Kaplan received a five-year, $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture this year to develop an alternative food source: meat produced not from farm animals, but from cells grown in bioreactors.

The group combines the efforts of engineers, biologists, nutrition researchers, and social scientists at Tufts and other universities, all in an effort to enhance food sustainability, nutrition, and security.

Stern Family Professor of Engineering David Kaplan (left) and team members like BS/MS student Erin Soule-Albridge are leading the global conversation on cellular agriculture

10

2022 Annual Report | School of Engineering

This new industry could provide nutritious and safe foods while reducing environmental impact and resource usage—with a target of significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water use as compared to traditional meat production. To achieve these goals, the interdisciplinary teams will also work together to evaluate consumer acceptance of cultivated meat, measure the environmental impact of the manufacturing

process, assess the economic viability compared to farm production, and prepare the next generation of the industry’s workforce.

“The challenges are huge,” says Kaplan. “From an engineering perspective, every time you scale to the next level there are new limitations in terms of energy requirements, moving and combining materials, dealing with safety and contamination issues.”

The challenges may be big, but thanks to the expertise of Kaplan’s team, Tufts is prepared to lead the way.

Adapted from story by Isaac Nicholas and Mike Silver. Read more at go.tufts.edu/USDA

A transformational gift builds momentum For three generations, the family of Davide Dukcevich, A96, made and sold traditional charcuterie, including PhD candidate Sophie Letcher prosciutto, salami, and sopresatta. Dukcevich majored in history at Tufts and later led his family’s business, Daniele Charcuterie, with his brother for 15 years.

In 2020, soon after his family sold Daniele Charcuterie, Dukcevich learned of an innovation that just might upend his industry—and the world.

His discovery didn’t take place in a lab or a factory, but during a walk in the woods, while listening to a podcast “about this thing called ‘cellular agriculture.’”

For Dukcevich, the idea of providing nutritious, sustainable food for people, while reducing animal suffering and curtailing the heavy environmental costs of meat production, was thrilling. “And then I discovered that one of the leading centers for cellular agriculture research was Tufts University— my alma mater,” he says. He hopes his $1 million contribution will add momentum at this critical, early phase of the field.

“This very generous gift builds Tufts’ momentum and strengthens our position as a global leader in cellular agriculture,” says Tufts President Anthony Monaco. “We are so grateful to Davide for investing in Tufts in this meaningful way. His generosity will help us build the capacity to leverage our unique strengths in the fields of bioengineering and nutrition to address the critical issues of food security and sustainability.”

Davide Dukcevich

Adapted from story by Kris Willcox. Read more at go.tufts.edu/dukcevich

engineering.tufts.edu

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Faculty Recruitment Tufts School of Engineering’s number of tenure-track faculty rose to 91 this year. Four new tenure-track faculty members and a teaching professor joined the School last year, alongside the promotion of two longtime lecturers to professor of the practice. Newly-hired faculty who will begin teaching this upcoming year include: Nisha Ayer, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering: Nisha Ayer’s research interests are at the intersection of developmental biology and regenerative medicine, using stem cells to understand and advance neural repair.

Johes Bater, Assistant Professor of Computer Science: Johes Bater’s research centers on how to balance privacy, security, and utility to build fast, accurate database systems that support privacy-preserving analytics with provable security guarantees.

Nisha Iyer

Briana Bouchard, Assistant Teaching Professor of Mechanical Engineering: Briana Bouchard’s research focuses on engineering education, electronic portfolios for engineering students, and alternative assessment strategies.

Johes Bater

Antonella Di Lillo, Associate Teaching Professor of Computer Science: Antonella Di Lillo’s research specialization is in computer vision and includes current work investigating the use of deep learning in image and video understanding.

Briana Bouchard

Juan Gnecco, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering: Juan Gnecco’s research vision lies at the interface of reproductive biology and tissue engineering to understand the immune-endocrine mechanisms driving both reproductive physiology and disease pathogenesis.

Antonella Di Lillo

David Miller, Assistant Teaching Professor of Mechanical Engineering: Dave Miller has worked in human factors consulting on projects from optimizing baggage handling procedures to collaborating on the design of barcode scanners to enhancing hospital infection control procedures.

Juan Gnecco

David Miller

Faculty Growth and Composition 140 ■ Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty ■ Professors of the Practice ■ Full-Time Lecturers ■ Teaching Faculty 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 AY05

12

AY06

AY07

AY08

AY09

AY10

AY11

AY12

AY13

2022 Annual Report | School of Engineering

AY14

AY15

AY16

AY17

AY18

AY19

AY20

AY21

AY22

Advancement and Outreach Development: The School of Engineering had another strong fundraising year, raising over $25.5 million in fiscal year 2022 (FY22). This was the second-highest total amount ever raised for the School, and the sixth year in a row of achieving eight-figure philanthropic support. Led by a transformational Schuler Access Initiative gift to support undergraduate financial aid, donors also supported cutting-edge faculty research, endowed professorships, capital needs, and student academic success. The School has twice exceeded its fundraising goals in the university’s Brighter World campaign, having raised $150 million versus its campaign goal of $100 million. Over 10,750 donors have contributed to the School in this campaign, demonstrating their belief in a Tufts engineering education.

Corporate and Foundation Relations: FY22 was a banner year for the School of Engineering, with $6.9 million in corporate and foundation achievement. Highlights included awards from Massachusetts Life Sciences Corporation funding Professor Sameer Sonkusale’s (ECE) work on the transdermal delivery of monoclonal antibodies and Professor Igor Sokolov’s (ME) research on the non-invasive detection of bladder cancer. The LEGO Foundation continued to support the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) with $2.8 million to amplify local organizations engaged in engineering-based learning. Daniel Votipka (CS), Lin Family Assistant Professor,

The CEEO continued its longstanding collaboration with LEGO Education

Tufts School of Engineering now offers an MS, PhD, and certificate in offshore wind energy engineering

received a $150,000 grant from Google to identify and reduce barriers to entry and participation for marginalized populations in cybersecurity vulnerability discovery, and Ocean Winds funded a $150,000 fellowship in Tufts’ offshore wind energy engineering graduate programs.

Alumni Outreach: The Office of Alumni Engagement returned to in-person reunion programming this year with events for three cycles of classes. The office collaborated with the Career Center to host a virtual alumni-student networking night during Engineers Week, and also partnered with the School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences to survey alumni working in biotech. In the future, the group plans to establish a more formal shared interest group for Tufts biotech alumni.

Career Center: This year, Tufts’ Career Center hosted 24 engineering-specific programs to support students in engineering and tech fields. The Center conducted nearly 1,200 career consultations with undergraduate and graduate students across engineering, computer science, and engineering psychology areas of study, and worked with alumni as well. The co-op program continued for its fourth year, providing undergrads from three engineering departments the opportunity to work in industry with preparation and support from the Career Center and the School of Engineering. engineering.tufts.edu

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Diversity Tufts’ Center for STEM Diversity (CSD) intentionally cultivates an equity-minded and justice-oriented community to promote academic and personal success for those historically excluded from STEM fields. Center staff are embedded in several School of Engineering academic departments and their expertise and support are crucial in developing programming for students and training for faculty and staff, contributing to research proposals, and providing holistic supports for students.

Graduating BEST students from the Class of 2022

CSD staff and School of Engineering community members collaborate on initiatives centered around diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ). This year, diversity program administrators hosted programs for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students to build community within departments, supported numerous grant proposals, and worked with the Department of Computer Science to launch Access for Computing Equity, a new summer enrichment program for rising sophomores that provides funding to take core classes, secure professional mentorships, and develop life skills crucial to success in the field.

Students playing a game at the CSD’s end of semester celebration in December 2021

STEM Ambassadors visit local high school classrooms to give STEM presentations, conduct science experiments, and talk about college

The CSD also continued to support 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 served 46 students, 13 of whom were graduating seniors. During the summer of 2022, the program welcomed its thirteenth cohort of incoming first-year students to the Tufts campus for the six-week program.

Through the STEM Ambassadors program, 15 first-generation college students worked with ninth and tenth grade high school classrooms in the greater Boston area to deliver virtual presentations on science and engineering topics and to talk to students about college. Nine new ambassadors joined the program in 2022. The LSAMP program supported 10 students, all of whom partnered with faculty mentors performing research.

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2022 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Engineering Education Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) continues to be at the vanguard of engineering education and remains deeply committed to its own learning and constant improvement. As Tufts CEEO furthered its ongoing work in diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice this year, staff engaged in education to better understand issues and best practices and crafted an action plan to channel intentions into measurable initiatives.

Tufts CEEO’s new pre-college outreach initiative collaborated with key community partners in Medford, Malden, Somerville, and Boston to bring hands-on engineering activities to local students.

Tufts CEEO continued to have a broad global impact as well, with new funding from the LEGO Foundation supporting the expansion of the Novel Engineering program to Brazil and Rwanda.

Tufts CEEO’s education research created new knowledge about pre-college teacher learning in online environments as well as on the use of portfolios in undergraduate education. The team’s work in embedding sociotechnical learning in a Students from Introduction to Engineering courses and Tufts Robotics Club first-year computing course for engineering is participated in the annual robotic haunted house hosted by the CEEO in the creating a new generation of ethically-informed Nolop FAST Facility makerspace engineers as well as conducting award-winning research on how minoritized students experience the course.

Going forward, Tufts CEEO’s technology research is bringing new topics in artificial intelligence and systems engineering to elementary and middle school students to prepare them to navigate the challenges of the future.

Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences Working closely with School of Engineering faculty members including Professor Eric Miller, Professor Shuchin Aeron, and Michael Hughes, Ann W. Lambertus, J75, and Peter Lambertus Assistant Professor, the Center for Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences (CABCS) developed an innovative predictive modeling capability that links contextual factors to cognitive and physical performance outcomes. The models currently incorporate data from over 2 million participants and 20,000 studies to link six contextual variables of importance to military personnel functioning (stress, sleep loss, physical exertion, dehydration, heat burden, cold burden) to seven performancerelated outcomes across cognitive and physical domains.

The models have laid the computational foundation for predicting military unit performance, ingesting data from continuing research at the CABCS, interpreting data streams from wearable biosensors, and identifying gaps to motivate future science and technology. Models and software tools resulting from this work have transitioned to stakeholders across the defense community, including Army and Air Force, and are currently being evaluated by military training and operational units for usability and utility. engineering.tufts.edu

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Innovation, Management, and Entrepreneurship This year, Tufts Gordon Institute (TGI) celebrated its 30th anniversary. In students participating in the June 2022, the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts (DEC) accepted the MSEM immersive experiences offered to Excellence in Curriculum Innovation in Entrepreneurship Award at the 11th Annual students on the Tufts campus Deshpande Symposium. The award recognizes exemplary commitment to, and success in, educational courses or programs that foster entrepreneurship education across an institution.

The DEC’s Tufts Venture Accelerator is an 11-week structured education experience that supports aspiring entrepreneurs in building new ventures. Thanks to a transformational gift of $1.2 million from the Flom Foundation, Earle Yaffa, E61, Kim Hartman, J85, and her husband, Alan Hartman, the Tufts Venture Accelerator was able to affirm its commitment to ensuring access and equity for anyone with an idea.

TGI expanded its online offerings through Coursera this year, with a new open course on hypothesis testing with Python and Excel — which has seen nearly 2,400 enrollments and 144 completions to date — and a stackable series of MasterTrack® courses on business analytics for managers, which teach students the critical thinking skills necessary to tackle real-world applications of data analysis.

TGI redesigned its MS in Engineering Management (MSEM) program to leverage the best of its on-campus and online MSEM programs, which were previously separate. The streamlined MSEM now offers students unprecedented flexibility. With a 100% online core curriculum, students also have the option to incorporate in-person study through immersive experiences. Recent graduates of the MS in Innovation and Management (MSIM) program have landed high-impact jobs at leading companies in a variety of industries, including Takeda, Procter & Gamble, Google, and Amazon Robotics, while others have launched their own startups to bring new products and services to market.

Infrastructure Development This year, Joyce Cummings Center opened for business on the corner of College and Boston Avenues. A sevenstory modern structure housing offices, classrooms, computer labs, event space, and a café, the building is the new home of the Department of Computer Science and Tufts Gordon Institute, among other Tufts units. It stands beside the Medford/Tufts subway stop on the Green Line, which is under construction by the MBTA and is projected to open during academic year 2022-2023.

Joyce Cummings Center

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Planning has begun on significant upgrades to Halligan Hall’s interior and infrastructure to support new teaching, research, and collaboration spaces, and to improve the building’s energy efficiency. Also in the works: improvements to the HVAC system of the Science and Technology Center (SciTech), expansion of the vivarium in the Science and Engineering Complex, the renovation of Nelson Auditorium in Anderson Hall, and rebuilding a conference room space in Robinson Hall.

2022 Annual Report | School of Engineering

Inspirational Gifts »

$10 million Schuler Access Initiative gift to support undergraduate financial aid for Pell-eligible students and students with undocumented status, from members of the Classes of 1962 and 1991

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$2.8 million gift to support Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) research on playful engineering-based learning in collaboration with local organizations

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$1.4 million gift to support faculty research and capital needs

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$1.05 million gift to create a new endowed junior professorship and support student academic success, from an anonymous donor

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$1 million gift to support Stern Family Professor of Engineering David Kaplan’s cellular agriculture research, from a member of the Class of 1996

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$900,000 gift to create an endowed undergraduate engineering scholarship, from a past Tufts University President

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$720,000 estate gift to create an endowed fund supporting School of Engineering capital and equipment needs, from a member of the Class of 1956

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$380,000 gift to add to an existing endowed scholarship and provide annual fund support, from a member of the Class of 1972

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$300,000 naming gift in Robinson Hall in honor of a Tufts Trustee, member of the School of Engineering Board of Advisors, and member of the Class of 1959 and their spouse, a member of the Class of 1960

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$212,000 gift to provide endowed and annual support to Tufts Athletics, from a member of the Class of 1997

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$200,000 naming gift in Joyce Cummings Center and a new Schuler Access Initiative scholarship, from a member of the Class of 2004

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$100,000 gift to support the Tufts student chapter of Engineers without Borders, from a member of the Class of 1969

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

Science and Engineering Complex Anderson Hall, Room 105 200 College Avenue, Medford, MA 02155

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