Dear School of Engineering community and colleagues,
Thank you to our community of faculty, staff, students, and alumni for a successful and exciting year. From groundbreaking research and prestigious awards to inspiring student initiatives and new programs and opportunities, academic year 2023-2024 has given us much to celebrate.
This year, five faculty members received the national recognition of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. The awards fund the research of Assistant Professor Trevion Henderson, Ann W. Lambertus, J75, and Peter Lambertus Assistant Professor Michael Hughes, McDonnell Family Assistant Professor Greses Pérez, Ankur and Mari Sahu Assistant Professor Raja Sambasivan, and Associate Professor James Van Deventer, honoring them as exceptional early-career faculty who have the potential to drive innovative research advances while serving as academic role models and leaders.
Faculty and staff were awarded this year for their exceptional efforts. Professor Nadine Aubry was elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering, the national academy of engineering for the United Kingdom. At Tufts, Dean of Graduate Education Karen Panetta was named a Distinguished Professor, which is a singular honor reserved for senior professors who have achieved high scholarly distinction and exemplify Tufts’ commitment to education and service. The team of Center for STEM Diversity diversity and inclusion administrators who support engineering departments — Mafalda Gueta, Simone Nicholson, and Kasandra Yee — received a Tufts Distinction Award acknowledging their standout work in facilitating a welcoming and inclusive environment for students, faculty, and staff in the School of Engineering.
Students took the lead in projects and initiatives spread across a broad spectrum of disciplines and interests. Student group JumboCode hosted Tufts’ first student-run computer science hackathon in five years with participation from 170 students. Fellow student organization Tufts Students for the Exploration and Discovery of Space (SEDS) built a competitive rocket to participate in the Spaceport America Cup for the first time in the group’s history. Tufts Electric Racing designed a 160-horsepower electric car designed to go from 0 to 60 mph in about five seconds, with entirely new electrical and powertrain systems. Groups such as Engineers Without Borders participated in hands-on learning while supporting communities across the globe.
In addition to celebrating the success of many longstanding programs, the School embarked on numerous new initiatives this year. In an effort led by Assistant Professor Trevion Henderson, Tufts Global Education, and Tufts Global Integrated Learning and Design, students traveled to Colombia to participate in the first Global Design Abroad project to integrate sociotechnical design principles into real-world applications. Faculty and staff planned the launch of the School’s new Graduate Co-Operative Program for MS students, building on the success of the undergraduate program to offer real-world learning opportunities in career-relevant settings for graduate students as well. The first cohort of students will begin their co-ops this coming fall.
I am grateful for the remarkable year we’ve finished together, and continue to look forward to the bright future of the School fueled by the strength and passion of our community. I eagerly anticipate our shared journey ahead.
Sincerely,
Kyongbum Lee Dean, Tufts School of Engineering Karol Family Professor
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. Professor Nadine Aubry of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) was elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering. Stern Family Professor David Kaplan of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and was listed among the world’s most highly cited researchers by Clarivate. Professor Qiaobing Xu (BME) was named Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors, and Professor and Chair Jeffrey Foster of the Department of Computer Science (CS) was named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Professor Babak Moaveni of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) was elected to the Engineering Mechanics Institute grade of Fellow. Professor Sameer Sonkusale of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) was named a Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. Professor and Dean of Graduate Education Karen Panetta (ECE) was named one of the top 100 people in artificial intelligence by Insider Business, and was named a Distinguished Professor of Tufts University.
Associate Professor Ayse Asatekin of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE) received the School of Engineering’s Henry and Madeline Fischer Award and was named among the top 100 Turkish women with the most patent applications worldwide. Associate Professor Jeffrey Guasto (ME) and Professor Usman Khan (ECE) were recipients of the School of Engineering Faculty Teaching and Mentoring Award for 2024. Assistant Professor Trevion Henderson (ME) won this year’s Recognition of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award. Assistant Teaching Professor Erica Kemmerling (ME) received the Faculty/Staff Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Service Award. Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor Elaine Schaertl Short (CS) was honored with the Lillian and Joseph Leibner Award for Excellence in Teaching and Advising of Students.
Sameer Sonkusale
Jeffrey Guasto
Usman Khan Ayse Asatekin
Karen Panetta
Nadine Aubry
Jeffrey Foster
Babak Moaveni
Qiaobing Xu
David Kaplan
Professor Emeritus Richard Vogel (CEE) delivered the Langbein Lecture at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting. Professor and Dean of Undergraduate Education Chris Swan (CEE) was named an Outstanding Link Coordinator by the Order of Engineers and received the Tufts Community Grants Sustaining Partner Award from Tufts University’s Office of Government and Community Relations. Professor Irene Georgakoudi (BME) delivered a lecture on label-free, high-resolution imaging at the National Institutes of Health. Professor Susan Landau (CS) received the prestigious USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded the American Mathematical Society’s 2024 Bertrand Russell Prize.
Srivalleesha Mallidi (BME) was appointed Tiampo Family Assistant Professor and recognized with the Sunrise Award, which honors the scholarly accomplishments of a junior faculty member within the School of Engineering. Professor Farshid Vahedifard (CEE) was named Berger Chair and was appointed to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Committee on America’s Infrastructure and received a National Science Foundation grant to study US levee systems. Megumi Ando (CS) was named Minnie McNeal Kenny Assistant Professor. Liping Liu (CS), Jivko Sinapov (CS), Brian Timko (BME), and James Van Deventer (ChBE) received tenure and were promoted to associate professor. Luisa Chiesa (ME) and Mark Hempstead (ECE) were promoted to full professor.
Chris Swan Irene Georgakoudi
Elaine Schaertl Short Richard Vogel
Trevion Henderson Erica Kemmerling
Jivko Sinapov
Luisa Chiesa
Mark Hempstead
James Van Deventer
Brian Timko
Susan Landau
Megumi Ando
Liping Liu
Farshid Vahedifard
Srivalleesha Mallidi
Selected Student and Alumni Achievements
Tufts engineering students and alumni are changing the world through service, research, careers in industry, and more.
Students: Roger Burtonpatel (CS) was one of three Tufts students named Luce Scholars. Each year, only 18 people are selected nationally for this prestigious program. Nate Bragg (CS), Tim Cheng (ME), Peter Hsi (BME), and Emmett Lepp (ME) conducted research with the Draper Scholars program. Amanda Lemire (ME) and Pan Menasuta (ECE) presented at the North American Conference on Molecular Beam Epitaxy. Demetrios Stoukides (ChBE) was the recipient of Tufts’ Chemical and Biological Engineering Professional Promise Award.
Yousef Abdo (ME), Liam Strand (CS), John Waller (BME), and Harrison Wilson (BME) were named Tufts Senior Award honorees. Matthew Patrick Ung (CS) was among the students honored by this year’s Presidential Awards for Civic Life, which recognize service, leadership, and civic engagement. Obafemi Jinadu (ECE), Foram Sanghavi (ECE), Mikhail Petrov (ME), and Marvin Xavierselvan (BME) were each recognized with a School of Engineering graduate student award for outstanding academic scholarship.
Veronica Lima Gonsalez (CEE) received an award for her research paper from consulting firm Geosyntec. Six Tufts Gordon Institute (TGI) students — Grayson Derossi (also CS), Aahana Kanyal, Kerry McConnaughay (also BME), Kendall Rogoff, Ana Salas, and David Suh — won two awards for their diabetes management startup, Lumilin Therapeutics, based on research from the lab of Professor and Chair Emmanuel Tzanakakis (ChBE). Aaron Love (ChBE) won a Best Poster Award at the Boston Bacterial Meeting for his research on protein coding schemes. Through the Tufts Buildable Bridges Project, Ethan Kessler (CEE) and Milo Kiddugavu (CEE) educated children about bridges and engineering.
Alumni: Glenn Bell (CEE) was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, earning the honor after a lengthy career in structural engineering. Amos Winter (ME) was promoted to full professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. Alexis Abramson (ME), now Dean and Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College, shared remarks at the School of Engineering Dean’s Lecture. Arul Jayaraman (ChBE) and Reginald Brothers (ECE) returned to Tufts to deliver commencement addresses.
Andrea Mercado (CEE) was selected as a Person on the Move by the Boston Business Journal Betsy Kirtland (CEE) was featured in Civil Engineering Magazine Andrew Bodkin (ME) and Barghavi Govindarajan (ECE) were each honored with School of Engineering Outstanding Career Achievement Awards. Kyle Flynn (CEE) was featured in a New York Times article about the effects of climate change on rivers and fish populations in Montana.
Peter Hsi
Demitrios Stoukides
Tim Cheng
Arul Jayaraman
Reginald Brothers
Veronica Gonsalez
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
The School of Engineering seeks to champion diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) through efforts at Tufts and in its surrounding communities. The School supports the work of Tufts’ Center for STEM Diversity (CSD), which hired a third diversity and inclusion department administrator this year, meaning that there is now a dedicated staff member available for all engineering departments and Tufts Gordon Institute. The CSD continued to facilitate the Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts (BEST) and Access for Computing Equity (ACE++) programs, fostering success for undergraduate students.
This year, the School hosted three DEIJ events during the spring semester: a colloquium, a forum, and a conversation. In the colloquium co-sponsored by Tisch College of Civic Life, statistician and big data expert Talithia Williams spoke on using data to understand social determinants of health and developing innovative interventions to address unique populations. Angela Bielefeldt of the University of Colorado Boulder led a DEIJ Forum for faculty and staff on challenges in hiring and retaining engineering faculty associated with historically marginalized groups. In the conversation event, Professor Chris Swan (CEE), Dean of Undergraduate Education for the School of Engineering, and Monroe France, Tufts’ Vice Provost of Institutional Inclusive Excellence, provided an overview of the Office of Institutional Inclusive Excellence, its current efforts around Tufts, and how faculty, staff, and students could participate.
The School continued to incorporate DEIJ concepts in curricular and extracurricular efforts, like in introduction to engineering courses for first-year students and the introduction to computing course taken by approximately 60% of all engineering students. The School maintains a comprehensive website that summarizes its DEIJ efforts throughout the year, as well as sharing available Tufts resources. Learn more at engineering.tufts.edu/deij
In a talk jointly presented by the School of Engineering’s DEIJ Colloquium Series and by Tisch College’s Solomont Speaker Series, Professor Talithia Williams spoke on the value of statistics in quantifying personal health
Global, Undergraduate, and Graduate Education
Global education: Tufts Global Education (TGE) continues to empower students with global perspectives, fostering academic and personal growth through diverse and enriching international programs. This year marked the highest number of School of Engineering students to ever participate in education abroad through Tufts Global Education. With support from TGE and Tufts Global Integrated Learning and Design, Assistant Professor Trevion Henderson (ME) launched the Global Design Abroad project. Partnering with community members in Isla Barú and Cartagena, Colombia, students co-created a trash removal system to aid beach cleanup efforts.
Undergraduate education: The popularity of engineering programs at Tufts continues to strengthen the school’s student body. For the fifth year in a row, the size of the undergraduate class upon graduation was larger than its size at matriculation. Additionally, the retention-to-graduation rate has been maintained at approximately 92% over the last several years. These measures indicate the continued strength of our curricular and extracurricular programming.
This year undergraduate programs received a record-breaking 7,566 applications — up more than 28% from three years ago. The acceptance rate was 10%. The Class of 2028 is comprised of 48% women, 11% international students, and 13% first-generation college students. The class includes students from 36 states and 23 countries.
Graduate education: The School of Engineering set a new record for graduate applications this year, with 3,021 applications for graduate programs that started in fall 2023. Preliminary numbers for fall 2024 indicate another record year in applications at the graduate level. Dean of Graduate Education Karen Panetta’s (ECE) office and Tufts Career Center developed a new co-operative education program for graduate students. The School also launched a new certificate in product development and design this year.
Undergraduate Applications
Mechanical engineering students and Assistant Professor Trevion Henderson participated in the inaugural run of Global Design in Cartagena, Colombia
Graduate Applications
Enrollment and Degrees Awarded
1First majors, August 2023 to May 2024. Second majors and minors are not included.
*For BS programs, Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering are two separate degrees. For graduate degrees, Civil and Environmental Engineering is one program.
**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.
***For BS and MS programs, Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering are two separate degrees. For PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering is one degree.
Selected Research Highlights
This fiscal year, externally-sponsored research expenditures in the School of Engineering totaled $35 million. Faculty submitted 372 new and supplemental funding requests, and invention disclosures from the School of Engineering continued to make up more than half of the university’s total technology transfer activity.
Energy, water, and the environment
Professor Shafiqul Islam (CEE) and fellow researchers published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports on their accurate, data-driven flood prediction model which is easily customizable to any medium or large rain-fed river around the world. Associate Professor Nikhil Nair’s (ChBE) lab modified yeast to feed on a wider range of materials, many of which can be derived from agricultural by-products, with implications for the biomanufacturing of biofuels and other products with a very low carbon footprint. In the journal Nature Physics, Associate Professor Robert Viesca (CEE) and colleagues published their findings on how cracks propagate in three-dimensional space, which has profound significance for fields like earthquake early warning.
Human health and bioengineering
Assistant Professor Juan Gnecco (BME) and Assistant Professor Nisha Iyer (BME) received First Look Awards from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s Women’s Health Initiative. Gnecco is building an in vitro organoid model to study how inflammatory circuits are regulated in endometrial tissues, and Iyer is developing an in vitro model made of human pluripotent stem cells. Associate Professor James Van Deventer (ChBE) received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award funding his work on principles of antibodies that could enable the discovery of next-generation protease inhibitors. Engineering antibodies capable of disrupting protease activity would present a potential new frontier in disease diagnosis and treatment, including for cancer.
A screen shows a sample of growing nerve cells cultured in the Iyer Stem Cell and Regeneration Lab
Robert Viesca Nikhil Nair
Shafiqul Islam
James Van Deventer
Nisha Iyer
Juan Gnecco
Human-technology interface
Associate Professor Valencia Koomson’s (ECE) team was one of three finalists in the Open Oximetry Project, a global challenge aiming to improve pulse oximeters and health equity. Their device computes vital signs like respiration rate, oxygen saturation, and heart rate and heart rate variability, with features that include signal-to-noise enhancement to improve accuracy for all skin tones. Frank C. Doble Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto (BME) and researchers in the Tufts Silk Lab created a paper analytical device that can measure lactate, also known as lactic acid, in sweat. Lactate measurements can indicate oxygen deficiency and be used as a predictor of mortality in trauma patients. Also using paper, Professor Sameer Sonkusale (ECE) and fellow researchers devised inexpensive, shelfstable, easy-to-use tests that bring lab-level precision to home and the wider world.
Intelligent systems
Professor Lenore Cowen (CS) and colleagues devised a computational approach based on a large language model, which can analyze vast amounts of text. Their model is able to match target proteins with potential drug molecules without having to calculate the molecules’ structures. With an NSF CAREER Award, Ann W. Lambertus, J75, and Peter Lambertus Assistant Professor Michael Hughes (CS) is developing decision aware methods that make it possible to train models to directly satisfy stakeholder goals in several health applications. Distinguished Professor Karen Panetta’s (ECE) image-enhancing advances served as the foundation for Tufts startup SeaDeep’s proprietary AI technology, which greatly enhances underwater visibility and reveals a world still largely unexplored. Ankur and Mari Sahu Assistant Professor Raja Sambasivan (CS) received an NSF CAREER Award to research cloud-based systems and the tools needed to detect and diagnose issues in them.
Fiorenzo Omenetto
Sameer Sonkusale
Valencia Koomson
Associate Professor Valencia Koomson’s ChromaSense device
Raja Sambasivan Karen Panetta
Lenore Cowen
Learning science
Assistant Professor Trevion Henderson (ME) received an NSF CAREER Award to support his work investigating and aiming to improve sociotechnical engineering education, an approach which acknowledges the impact of social, political, and cultural factors on the engineering process. He will synthesize the knowledge gained to develop a sociotechnical design toolkit and disseminate best practices. With an NSF CAREER Award, McDonnell Family Assistant Professor Greses Pérez (CEE) is developing a theoretical model of the connections between Black-Latinx cultural and language practices and engineering practices. The resulting theoretical model will reshape prevailing conceptions of engineering from a socially-detached activity to a community-led endeavor.
A robot getting ready to draw a photo in Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor Elaine Short’s Assistive Agent Behavior and Learning Lab
Greses Pérez
Trevion Henderson
Faculty Recruitment
Tufts School of Engineering’s number of tenured and tenure-track faculty rose to 92 this year. Faculty newly appointed to full-time positions include:
Elyse Cornwall, Assistant Teaching Professor in Computer Science: Elyse Cornwall earned her MS and BS in Computer Science from Stanford University. Her studies focused on human-computer interaction and theoretical computer science.
Yu-Ting Dingle, Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering: Yu-Ting Dingle received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University. She studies 3D in vitro modeling of the brain, with the latter involving the use of a bioengineered silk/collagen composite scaffolding material.
Christopher Magnano, Assistant Teaching Professor in Computer Science: Christopher Magnano received his MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research focuses on making computational analyses more accessible to biological researchers.
Reuth Mirsky, Assistant Professor in Computer Science: Reuth Mirsky received her PhD on plan recognition in real-world environments from Ben Gurion University. In her research, she seeks algorithms, behaviors, and frameworks to improve AI with human-inspired design.
Markus Nemitz, Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering: Markus Nemitz earned his PhD from the University of Edinburgh. His research interests encompass 3D-printable robotics, real-time adaptive additive manufacturing, and integrated robot ecosystems.
Shelly Peyton, Professor and Chair in Biomedical Engineering: Shelly Peyton earned her PhD from the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on designing and adapting biomaterials to better understand breast cancer metastasis and traumatic brain injury.
Lauryn Spearing, Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering: Lauryn Spearing received her PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She uses a systems thinking approach to understand complex problems at the intersection of technical, social, and natural systems.
Hari Sundar, Associate Professor in Computer Science: Hari Sundar received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the development of computationally optimal parallel, highperformance algorithms that are efficient and scalable on state-of-theart architectures.
Faculty Growth and Composition
Yu-Ting Dingle
Hari Sundar
Shelly Peyton
Reuth Mirsky
Lauryn Spearing
Markus Nemitz
Christopher Magnano
Elyse Cornwall
Advancement and Outreach
Development: The School of Engineering continued its fundraising growth, raising over $18.6 million in fiscal year 2023. New endowed professorships and fellowships were established to increase faculty opportunities; students were enriched through programs such as BEST and ACE++ and through opportunities offered by the Derby Entrepreneurial Center, the Nolop FAST Facility makerspace, and the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach; and increased access to Tufts was provided through new endowed scholarships and financial aid.
Corporate and foundation relations: The School of Engineering finished FY24 with over $5.5 million in corporate and foundation achievement. A grant from the G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation provided support for Associate Professor Madeleine Oudin (BME) and collaborator Professor Christopher Dulla’s (School of Medicine) research with the hope of future treatment options for pediatric epilepsy patients. LEGO Education made a gift to the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach to foster hands-on, project based collaborative learning in education.
Alumni outreach: As part of the School’s annual celebration of Engineers Week, the Office of Alumni Engagement and the Career Center hosted a Student-Alumni Engineering Network Night in February. Nearly 100 attendees, including Dean and Karol Family Professor Kyongbum Lee (ChBE), gathered in the Aidekman Arts Center for an evening of networking, conversation and connecting. Alumni shared career advice and job and internship opportunities while students used the opportunity to practice their networking skills.
Career support: The Career Center hosted multiple networking and industry nights and participated in specialized career fairs relevant to engineering students. Staff met one-on-one with 82 alumni and 819 current undergraduate and graduate students from engineering, computer science, and engineering psychology degree programs. The number of students served increased by more than 12% over last year. Staff also provided group presentations to classes, academic program participants, and student organizations, and supported engineering students in both the undergraduate and graduate co-op programs.
Engineering student life
With support from faculty advisors Professor Chris Swan (CEE) and Professor Doug Matson (ME), as well as from industry mentors, six Engineers Without Borders students traveled to Solomoni, Malawi with cultural advisor and Tufts alum Naomi Slagowski, EG08, in the summer of 2023 to help improve a community’s water access. On this trip to the village, students expanded water access, including implementing a water tower and installing water taps outside of classrooms and in bathrooms for easy water access. Learn more at go.tufts.edu/ewb
The Engineers Without Borders student group traveled to Solomoni, Malawi this year
Madeleine Oudin
Highlights from Centers and Institutes
STEM diversity: The Center for STEM Diversity (CSD) supports students, faculty, staff, and academic programs across the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences. This year, CSD staff offered drop-in hours for student support, organized industry visits for students, participated in admissions recruiting, hosted events, and offered trainings. The CSD collaborated with the Department of Computer Science in continuing to offer two summer programs: 15 students participated in the 12-week Accessing Computing Equity (ACE++) summer program, and 10 REU DIAMONDS participants – including five Tufts students – engaged in on-campus research.
This year, Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts (BEST) served 45 undergraduate students across all classes. The program welcomed its 14th cohort in 2023, providing incoming first-year students with summer coursework, weekly workshops at Bray Lab, and resource workshops. The CSD organized two sections of the Redefining the Image of Science and Engineering Advising Seminar (RISE) course, with 31 students across both sections. The 17 students from the STEM Ambassadors program worked with 550 high school students in Boston, Medford, and Somerville classrooms. The CSD supported nine GEM Fellows in the School of Engineering and 11 LSAMP students who were engaged in research across labs.
Engineering education and outreach: This year, the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) continued its support of community schools by training and supporting 10 student outreach learning fellows to bring engineering into elementary classrooms in East Boston, Everett, and Somerville. In the Design Talks initiative, a team of K-8 teachers and education researchers planned and recorded engineering whole-class conversations and analyzed those discussions to understand how classroom talk helped elementary students learn and think about engineering design.
The CEEO debuted a new online course called Engineering Design with Artificial Intelligence for Middle and High School Teachers. The National Science Foundation awarded Tufts CEEO, the University of California, Irvine, and Boston College a nearly $3 million grant to develop smart playgrounds. McDonnell Family Assistant Professor Greses Pérez and PhD student G.R. Marvez co-taught a first-year engineering class that blended communitybased engineering practices and the art of game design.
Summer middle school engineering program
Trash sorting board game
Innovation, management, and entrepreneurship: Beginning in the fall 2024 semester, Tufts Gordon Institute’s (TGI) MS in Engineering Management (MSEM) and MS in Technology Management and Leadership (MSTML) programs will be available for students to study full-time and on-campus. Additionally, students studying parttime and online will have new options for supplementing their online experience with occasional on-campus courses that fit their schedules. TGI continued to offer weekend-long immersive experiences with intensive deep dives into specific topics, including innovation, entrepreneurship, business analytics, leadership, and more.
The Derby Entrepreneurship Center (DEC) continued to offer popular events and workshops including Innovation Month programming in September and the Entrepreneurial Speaker Series. The undergraduate entrepreneurship academic program grew 14% year over year, reaching 735 unique students.
In April 2024, Tufts School of Engineering held a launch celebration for the Auster Center for Applied Innovation Research (AIR Center). The Center is dedicated to advancing our understanding of how innovation, particularly technology innovation or innovations that are touched by technology, can be fostered, translated, and applied to do good in the world.
Applied brain and cognitive sciences: The Center for Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences (CABCS) builds interdisciplinary research teams to conduct state-of-the-art research and development aimed at measuring, predicting, and enhancing cognitive capabilities and human-system interactions for individuals and teams working in high-stakes environments. CABCS is engaged in multiple projects involving Tufts faculty, postdocs, graduate students, undergraduates, and staff.
This year’s highlights include expanding on human performance predictive models and decision support tools to incorporate seven contextual stressors and seven cognitive and physical performance outcomes; discovering that non-invasive galvanic vestibular neurostimulation can transfer navigation instructions to humans; evaluating a new wearable metabolic status monitor during exercise; leveraging thermoelectric generators quantifying the core features of human traits to predict cognitive and physical performance outcomes; and leveraging omnidirectional treadmills to quantify attentional tradeoffs between ambulation and effective augmented reality use.
The AIR Center hosted a conversation with Douglas Hickey, the US ambassador to Finland
Winners of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center $100K New Ventures Competition
More research focus areas
Artificial intelligence: The Tufts Institute for Artificial Intelligence (TIAI) brings together engineers, social scientists, biologists, clinicians, and ethicists from across the university to develop and advance the field of integrated artificial intelligence. To capitalize on leading Tufts expertise, TIAI is pursuing work in three key areas: learning and education, personalized nutrition, and personalized therapeutics combating anti-microbial resistance.
Cellular agriculture: The Tufts Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA) is leading the effort to overcome fundamental technical challenges in the field, develop standards, and share knowledge. The USDA National Institute for Cellular Agriculture at Tufts University seeks to develop a cell-based meat platform by integration of physical, biological, and social sciences; innovate the food supply chain to enhance food sustainability, nutrition, and security; and train the next generation of professionals.
Data science: The T-TRIPODS institute focuses interdisciplinary efforts across multiple Tufts departments and campuses to advance the understanding of foundations of data science. The project convenes teams of mathematicians, computer scientists, statisticians, and electrical engineers to address timely questions and solve important problems on the frontiers of data science. The Data Intensive Studies Center (DISC) enables multi-disciplinary excellence in data science scholarship and education at Tufts University.
Learning science: The Institute for Research on Learning and Instruction (IRLI) introduces and sustains scholarly research on learning and instruction within departments, programs, and schools at Tufts. It is one of the first university-level structures working to integrate the historically distinct missions of research and teaching.
Materials science: The Tufts Interdisciplinary Advanced Materials (TIAMAT) Center unifies more than four dozen Tufts faculty members whose technical interests include materials science and engineering. Researchers produce novel and highly innovative research that advances basic and applied knowledge in materials.
Neural science and disease: The Initiative for Neural Science, Disease & Engineering (INSciDE@Tufts) is an interdisciplinary center with multi-scale focus on brain and peripheral nervous system structure, function, and disease. It integrates bioengineering, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine with technological innovation and therapeutic approaches.
Infrastructure Development
After extensive work over the past several semesters, Halligan Hall is reopening in the fall of 2024. The renovations include approximately 8,000 square feet of research space, an introductory teaching lab, an advanced electronics lab, and a senior capstone lab. New meeting and collaborative spaces will serve the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and visitors to the building. In addition to a multi-year project to upgrade the infrastructure within the Science and Technology Center (SciTech), the School of Engineering initiated a targeted renovation and reorganization project for SciTech that includes newly-renovated laboratories for new faculty hires and renovated laboratories for existing faculty, as well as updated space for future hires.
In the Science and Engineering Complex, Tufts built out research wing shell space for the study of cellular agriculture in Stern Family Professor David Kaplan’s (BME) lab and for Professor and Chair Shelly Peyton’s (BME) research. The new lab space will provide state-of-the-art laboratory access for both groups while fostering additional crossdepartment and cross-school collaboration. On the university level, Tufts continues to plan for a new residential building on Boston Avenue to provide additional housing for undergraduate students.
An aerial view of the intersection of Boston Avenue and College Avenue A cafe and study space in the newly renovated Halligan Hall
Exterior of the Science and Engineering Complex, where shell space in the research wing is being developed
Inspirational Giving
Haymon strong
This spring, members of the extended Haymon family joined Tufts faculty, staff, and alumni to officially dedicate the Monte and Jane Haymon Boardroom, a state-of-the-art conference room on the second floor of Robinson Hall. Made possible by the generosity of the Haymon family, the space is named in honor of Jane, J60, and Monte, E59, Haymon
Jane and Monte first met as Tufts students in 1955, with Jane majoring in biology and Monte in chemical engineering. Their student years on the Medford campus sparked a nearly 60-year love story and a lifetime commitment to Tufts. That love for their alma mater was clearly present in the 16 members of the extended Haymon family — including several Jumbos — who were present at the May dedication ceremony. “My parents were most proud of the legacy they left behind,” said Debra Bloom, J85, speaking at the dedication ceremony. Debra, along with her sisters Karen Rubin, J83, and Jackie Katz, were brought up understanding that education was paramount and that Tufts University was a special place.
Monte and Jane maintained a lasting connection to Tufts University for the rest of their lives, generously serving the Jumbo community until Monte’s passing in 2018 and Jane’s in 2024. For 28 years, Monte served on the School of Engineering Board of Advisors, chairing for 11 of those years. He was also a member of the Tufts University Board of Trustees for a decade.
Together, Monte and Jane conducted admissions interviews, worked on Tufts reunion committees, and generously established the Monte and Jane Haymon Family Endowed Scholarship Fund to help Tufts undergraduate students with financial need. Monte and Jane’s daughters fondly recall their parents’ personal support, too, with memories of phone calls home and letters of encouragement during their college days which they will cherish for the rest of their lives.
Members of the Haymon family at the Haymon Boardroom dedication Dean Kyongbum Lee with Jackie Katz, Debra Bloom, and Karen Rubin, standing in front of a plaque honoring Jane and Monte Haymon
