Professor Lorena Barba

Prof. Barba led a multi-institution bid to success in the call for research seed grants of the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center, MGHPCC. The award amounts to $130,487 for the duration of one year. This project is a collaboration among investigators in BU, Harvard and UMass aimed at creating an open and high-performance software infrastructure for a family of hierarchical N-body algorithms.

“N-body” is the name given to any problem that involves a system where each object depends on the state of every other object in the system. The classic example in mechanics is gravitational interaction, but the situation also appears in the interactions of atoms or ions and in discrete representations of the equations for acoustics, electromagnetics and fluid dynamics.

Algorithms to solve this problem that use hierarchical groupings of the objects in the system (or points in the discretization) are often fast, and scale very well in highly parallel computers. In fact, some believe that these algorithms will be better suited to the increasing numbers of cores in high-performance computers, and more likely to reach exascale.

What is lacking is a concerted effort to create high-performance software offering the power of these algorithms to the wider scientific community.

The team funded by this seed grant will develop software infrastructure for hierarchical N-body algorithms aimed at the top computing systems, such as Blue Gene and GPUs . The team will also develop capability to solve diverse problems, including biophysics, acoustics and fluid dynamics.

The joint effort will build from the software framework called ExaFMM, which was released by Barba’s team at the Supercomputing Conference in Seattle, Nov. 2011.
The research team is formed by:
‣Lorena Barba, Boston University
‣Cris Cecka, Institute for Applied Computational Science, Harvard University
‣Hans Johnston, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst

In addition, IBM T.J. Watson Research (Cambridge, MA) is an industrial partner in this effort, and Dr Rio Yokota (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) is an external collaborator. Yokota was a postdoctoral researcher with Prof Barba for nearly three years before joining KAUST in September 2011. He is the main developer of ExaFMM.

Sylvanus Lee (PhD ’12)

In recent years, nanofabrication has caught the attention of many industries. Computer engineers look at how the structures can open the door to create super high-density memory chips and microprocessors. Nanofabrication has also been applied to medical, military, and aerospace research.

At Boston University, Sylvanus Lee (PhD ’12), who is pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, and Professor Luca Dal Negro (ECE) have focused their nanofabrication research on how to control the color response of metal surfaces on nanostructures in ways that aren’t possible with traditional techniques.

In October, Lee brought their paper, “Isotropic Structural Color of Nanostructured Metal Surfaces,” to the Optical Society of America (OSA) Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science conference in San Jose, Calif. Attendees were very interested in their publication, and Lee ultimately took home the Emil Wolf Outstanding Student Paper Competition award.

“We’ve spent many long hours on this project, and the work has been challenging,” said Lee. “It was great to see that pay off at the conference.”

Read the paper in Optics Express.

Associate Professor Luca Dal Negro (ECE)

Lee and Dal Negro found that pinwheel nanoparticle arrays can allow for intense coloration enhanced by plasmonic resonance. Dal Negro said that much of the research was inspired by the everyday iridescent colors displayed in nature – from those in butterfly wings to peacock feathers.

Their findings can be applied to many research areas such as optical technology, security and energy. Some examples include creating security holograms or enabling bright displays to be engineered in flat screen televisions or omnidirectional mirrors.

Dal Negro, who is also Lee’s advisor at BU, describes his student as “highly motivated” and said that Lee displays “a true passion for pushing the limits of nanofabrication.”

“He truly enjoys fabricating and controlling complex nanoscale structures, and he has developed a unique ability at doing it both precisely and efficiently,” said Dal Negro.

Lee is originally from Hong Kong and also worked in California but decided to attend BU because of the exciting research opportunities in the area and the different experience of living on the east coast.

“It’s a different academic experience I’ve had compared to where I come from,” said Lee. “I really enjoy working with Professor Dal Negro because at a certain point, you know you’ll get results.”

-Rachel Harrington (rachelah@bu.edu)

Lorena Barba, an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, has received an NVIDIA Academic Partnership award for her research using GPUs to speed-up simulations of complex fluid flow problems.

The Academic Partnership Program (formerly known as Professor Partnerships) was established by NVIDIA in 2006 and has since then awarded a total of 70 scientists with financial support for their research and/or equipment donations. These awards are very competitive; NVIDIA receives hundreds of proposals and awards only a few grants each year.

The use of GPU computing in scientific applications has exploded in the last two or three years, as researchers find that they can speed-up their simulations by at least 10 times, often more. GPUs are a modern hardware for which computer programs are written in an extended version of the C-language. They evolved from video cards developed over the years to satisfy the billion-dollar gaming market. But today, they are being used to crunch numbers for finance, to simulate proteins using molecular dynamics, to compute magnetic fields, fluid flow, seismic waves and much more.

Only last year, a GPU-based supercomputer allowed China to take the top place in the international supercomputing rankings, claiming #1 in the Top500 list. In the latest ranking of the world’s computers, three of the top-five systems are using GPUs, and thus no one doubts any more that this technology is a main player in the future of computing.

Prof. Barba started working with GPU computing in 2007, when it was not yet popular nor even known if this technology would be significant for science. She has since then developed a strong research program which involves investigating new numerical algorithms, and adapting old ones, for GPUs. Applications of interest in her group are mostly focused on unsteady fluid flow, but also consider problems in diverse areas, such as molecular physics.

This NVIDIA award is aimed at supporting Prof. Barba’s research in the use of GPUs for computational fluid dynamics, especially with immersed-boundary methods for flow around moving objects. A particular objective in Barba’s group is to develop the capability to compute the aerodynamics of small-scale flyers—such as bats, birds and micro-air vehicles. The development of immersed-boundary methods in GPU hardware would offer the capacity to simulate these flows in small computer clusters, which would enable many more researchers to address the science of unsteady flapping flight.

In this capacity, he will oversee professional education—including the MEng, Certificate and Distance Learning programs—and the Late Entry Accelerated Program (LEAP), and explore ways to enhance their content and expand their enrollments. He will also be responsible for educational initiatives at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

“Associate Dean Wroblewski has a wealth of impressive experiences that prepares him to fill this crucial position,” said Lutchen. “I am confident that Don’s passion and educational experiences will propel these current programs to the next level and create new interdisciplinary opportunities for the College.”

“I am thrilled to be joining the College’s leadership team,” said Wroblewski. “This is a unique opportunity to shape our educational programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and to build strategic partnerships within the University and with alumni and industry. As a top engineering college, BU’s excellence in research should be matched by excellence in curriculum and pedagogy, and the creation of this position reaffirms the College’s commitment to that goal.”

Educational initiatives expected to fall within Wroblewski’s purview include technology innovation and curriculum enhancements; the Innovative Engineering Education Faculty Fellow (IEEFF) program; contextual teaching of calculus, physics and chemistry that amplify quality and retention; degree or course creation with other schools; concentration enhancements, student design competitions; and interdisciplinary senior projects both within ENG and those that engage students from SMG and the School of Public Health.

A co-recipient of the inaugural IEEFF Award in 2009, Wroblewski has introduced several innovations to the College’s undergraduate engineering curriculum. Most notably, he spearheaded an initiative called Coordinate Application Threads (CATs), in which he implemented specific application examples in courses throughout the ME program to provide a systems-level view of the basic core concepts and to increase students’ retention. He has also transformed the aerospace senior design course, introducing an active-learning model that requires students to review lecture notes prior to class so that class time can be devoted to discussions and challenging, team-based exercises.

A College of Engineering faculty member for more than two decades, Wroblewski has held several leadership positions in the Mechanical Engineering department (formally AME), including associate chair for Aerospace Engineering Undergraduate Programs, faculty director of the Distance Learning Program and coordinator for Aerospace Engineering Senior Design. At the College level, he serves as co-associate chair for Undergraduate Studies and the Provost’s Faculty Advisory Board on Distance Education, and was a past board member for the Center for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching.

Join us for a Master of Engineering Open House Information Session on Monday, September 12^th from 6:00pm-7:00pm at 15 St. Mary’s Street, Room 105. Click here to RSVP to Kirstie Miller at kimiller@bu.edu

Echoing the dean’s remarks, undergraduate student speaker Stephen J. Maouyo (ME) encouraged graduating seniors to use their creativity to explore how the technologies they develop can be used to alleviate human suffering.

“What was most valuable about Boston University’s engineering curriculum was the pairing of engineering with perspective,” he said, likening the end-product of that curriculum to gold. “My challenge to you today is to use that well-rounded, perspective-based education and turn that gold into something else, something more valuable.”

Primed to apply their potent skill set to a vast array of societal needs, 16 master of engineering, 160 master of science and 287 bachelor of science students were recognized on May 22 at the Track & Tennis Center for successfully completing the requirements for graduation. Sixty-three doctor of philosophy graduates were honored at a separate ceremony the previous evening.

As she lined up with fellow capped-and-gowned undergraduates awaiting their processional into the arena, Commencement speeches and diplomas, Melanie Zile (BME) experienced the moment as bittersweet.

“It’s nice that all of our hard work and effort is finally paying off, but now all of our friends are leaving,” said Zile, who plans to pursue a PhD in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Dan Mashayekh (MFG), who returns to the College of Engineering this fall in the MEng program, observed, “The first time I came here, this was the place where we got matriculated, and it looked so much bigger back then. After four years, it makes me happy to be able to say, ‘I’m an engineer.’”

Mashayekh lauded the ENG program for enabling him to analyze an engineering problem on the spot and come up with a solution, and to translate concepts into tangible prototypes. Fellow MFG graduate Lacey Mannex, now interviewing for positions in industrial design, concurred.

“I designed my own pencil holder on a revolving base,” she recalled, “and watching it being machined in our machine shop and seeing something that I thought of come to life was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done.”

Internet pioneer Robert M. Metcalfe, professor of Innovation and Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise in the University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering and 2005 National Medal of Technology winner for his leadership in co-inventing, standardizing and commercializing the Ethernet, delivered the Commencement address. Metcalfe, who founded 3Com Corporation, authored a widely-read Internet column in IDG InfoWorld and now serves as venture partner of the Massachusetts-based Polaris Venture Partners. He urged graduates to recognize that success depends on a mix of hard work and luck.

“Life is uncertain, but life’s many uncertainties can be anticipated, measured, mitigated and even sometimes turned to your advantage,” he said, stressing the importance of being prepared for both worst- and best-case scenarios. “The best preparation for an uncertain future is a degree in engineering.”

At the PhD hooding ceremony on May 21 at the School of Management auditorium, featured speaker Rao Mulpuri (MFG MS’92, PhD’96) focused his remarks on how graduates can best shape that future.

“Whether it is semiconductors or energy efficiency, it is important to tie it all back to what we’re trying to do as humans,” said Mulpuri, CEO of Soladigm, a developer of next-generation green building solutions and former executive at Novellus Systems, a leading supplier of technologies used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Mulpiri advised PhD recipients to leverage their knowledge and skills to solve society’s most impactful problems, and to keep five things in mind: “Be impactful, keep learning, get recognized, have a career path and have fun.”

At the Commencement ceremony, several student awards were presented. Mary Louise Fowler (BME) received the Earle and Mildred Bailey Memorial Award for scholarship and service to the College; Nicholas J. Giordano (BME) and James J. Wekwert (ME) received the Ging S. Lee Community Service Award for outstanding community service; and Kristen L. Lee (BME) and Stephanie D. Steichen (BME) received the Anita Cuadrado Memorial Award for enthusiasm and devotion to the College.

Faculty honored at the ceremony included Professor Soumendra Basu (ME, MSE), who received the Faculty Service Award for his consistent and exemplary service to his department and division; Professor Donald Wroblewski (ME), who received the Professor of the Year Award based on superlative student evaluations of his teaching abilities; and Assistant Professor Michael Smith (BME), Professor Janusz Konrad (ECE) and Associate Professor Ray Nagem (ME) received Department Awards for Teaching Excellence from their respective departments.

Mobilizing Microbes ENG research will support the project's three main thrusts: programmed bacteria with engineered biomolecular sensors and synthetic gene networks, two-way communication between micro-bio-robots (MBRs) and chaperone robots, and swarms of MBRs supervised by chaperone robot systems.

Cheap, adaptable to extreme environments—and endowed with a natural ability to probe, analyze and modify their surroundings—microbiological organisms represent a promising  line of attack for everything from oil spill cleanup to chemical weapons detection. But harnessing this capability will require some complex technological enhancements. Major challenges include getting the microbes to sense, process and respond to specific stimuli; equipping them to communicate their findings; and coordinating them to take collective action in real-time.

Now a research team led by Professor James Collins (BME, MSE, SE) proposes to surmount these challenges through an unprecedented combination of expertise in synthetic biology, computer engineering, control systems and robotics.

The Office of Naval Research has awarded the team—which includes Assistant Professors Calin Belta (ME, SE) and Douglas Densmore (ECE) and leading researchers from Harvard University, MIT, Northeastern University and the University of Pennsylvania—with a highly competitive Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant of $7.5 million to pursue its project, “Utilizing Synthetic Biology to Create Programmable Micro-Bio-Robots,” over the next five years. The team’s goal is to develop technologies that enable swarms of microbiological organisms to execute desired tasks in a cohesive, efficient manner.

Toward that end, the researchers plan to genetically alter microbes to detect, analyze and respond to explosives, toxins, metals, salinity, pH, temperature, light and other environmental signals; assemble groups of these programmed microbes and support hardware into 10-100-micrometer-long hybrid “micro-bio-robots” (MBRs); and design 10-100-centimeter-long, powered “chaperone robots” that direct and monitor thousands of MBRs at close proximity and apprise human operators of their progress via wireless communication.

“The idea is to engineer living organisms—in this case bacteria—that respond to external stimuli in the environment,” Densmore explained. “In response, they will generate a fluorescent or chemical signal that can be measured by the chaperone robots, which can produce signals as well that the bacteria can detect, so you have a two-way communication system. Finally, the chaperone robots can also communicate with human users.”

Using techniques from synthetic biology, the researchers intend to modify bacterial DNA so that the cells can both sense and report on specific stimuli. For instance, the researchers may alter DNA within bacterial cells to produce a fluorescent protein that glows green in the presence of high pH, a signal that nearby chaperone robots can interpret and relay to human operators.

The College of Engineering contribution to this effort is substantial. Collins will work on DNA modification; Densmore will optimize selection of DNA sequences used to enable microbial cells to sense and indicate the presence of specific environmental signals; and Belta will participate in the design and assembly of MBRs and chaperone robots, and efforts to coordinate their activity.

“People have made robots that can respond to external stimuli, and synthetic biologists have made bacteria that can sense environmental conditions, but putting it all together in a highly coordinated and deterministic system is completely new,” said Densmore.