Letter from the Dean June 2024

Dear Members of the College of Engineering Alumni, Parent, and Friend Community:

As we celebrate another successful academic year, I am thrilled to share some of our collective accomplishments and a preview of what’s ahead. I have been inspired every day by the interests, achievements, and passion of our students and all facets of our community – alumni, friends, staff, and faculty. I also recognize this year saw extraordinary turmoil in the world and across our country. Like any other community of societally minded individuals, we felt the weight of these challenges. I have been heartened by the care and support that so many in our College have given to others. This compassion is an unquestionable strength of BU Engineering and has enabled us to remain steadfast in our commitment to the twin pillars of our mission – graduating Societal Engineers who embrace an interdisciplinary, problem-solving approach to meet global challenges and advancing the research that will define the future.

Our students and faculty continue to innovate. For their senior design project, a team of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Engineering students created an award-winning, compact air-quality sensor pack that can be attached to the fronts of bicycles from Bluebikes, Boston’s public rental network, to create a mobile network of air quality monitors throughout the city. A team from Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) developed a mobile app to provide an accessible and more enjoyable educational and cultural experience in museums. In a design challenge for Biomedical Engineering (BME) majors, a team of three created a device to provide a critical tool for asthma management. And our impact extended far beyond campus: this year the FDA cleared a device for noninvasive detection of skin cancer, a device that uses technology pioneered by Professor Irving J. Bigio (BME, ECE).

Earlier this spring we celebrated the grand opening of RASTIC, a state-of-the-art facility where students can design, build, and test a range of robotic solutions to real-world problems. RASTIC partners with industry to ensure students can expand and hone their hands-on, applied robotics skills by asking students to create solutions to existing challenges our industry partners are facing. With this new space – in addition to our other hands-on learning facilities EPIC, BTEC, and SILab – we remain committed to training future engineers who are prepared for the workforce through their technical expertise, teaming and communications skills, and solution-oriented perspectives.

As societal challenges continue to require technology solutions, there is an increasing need for engineers. It takes our entire community – on campus and off – to educate and prepare our future engineers to lead with impact. It has been wonderful to see the various ways our alumni, parents, and friends make a difference, and I encourage you to begin or continue to engage with us – you might mentor a student, hire BU Engineering interns or grads, or attend a local event. On September 27, we will host an engineering community event at our new hands-on learning space, RASTIC, featuring alumni, faculty, and students and hope you can join us.

Finally, you may have seen a recent announcement from Incoming President Dr. Melissa Gilliam regarding several changes in University leadership. This announcement included the news that Ken Lutchen, who has served with distinction as BU’s Provost ad interim for the past year, has been appointed as Special Advisor to the President on Strategy and Innovation. Ken’s contributions to our College – foremost among them his 16 years as Dean – have been profound and far-reaching, and we are forever grateful. While this change signifies a period of transition for the institution, I have the utmost confidence that our College will continue on its remarkable path.

If you have questions, suggestions, or are interested in getting involved, please do not hesitate to be in touch with me here.

With gratitude and best wishes for a restorative summer,

Elise

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Elise F. Morgan (she/her)
Maysarah K Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation
Dean ad interim

College of Engineering

Boston University