Trepidation mixed with thrill as members of the College of Engineering class of 2009 crossed the stage at the Track and Tennis Center on May 17, picking up diplomas along the way.

At the fifty-sixth annual commencement ceremony, the College recognized the three master’s of engineering, 108 master of science and 266 bachelor of science students who completed the requirements for graduation. Forty three doctor of philosophy graduates were recognized at a separate ceremony held for the first time the previous evening.

“Bittersweet,” said Donna Lavallee, summing up her son Nathan Lavallee’s reaction to graduating from the College of Engineering. “It’s a tribute to BU, he’s sad to be leaving,” she said. “He loved it.”

Although they take their initial steps into an unsteady economy, the graduates, their student speaker and guest speaker expressed confidence that they, as engineers, will be the world-changers and innovators of the future.

“It’s not really relief,” said Paolo Belfiore, as he stood near the head of a long column of red-gowned classmates waiting to proceed into their graduation. “But it’s like the ticket to a new world, a new beginning.”

Venkatesh Narayanamurti, the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences and professor of physics at Harvard University, delivered the commencement address. He educated graduates on the illustrious history of their chosen profession and the bright prospects for its future.

“Engineering has been a driver in the advance of civilization,” said Narayanamurti, the former dean of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “Throughout history engineering has been an agent of change …and engineering will play an increasingly central role in the 21st century.”

Their ability to solve complex problems will serve society well, Narayanamurti told the class of 2009. They will address the grand challenges of sustainability, human health, terrorism, clean water, creating better medicines and securing cyberspace. As engineers, he said the graduates will have a “life of adventure enabling the future,” and in closing, he encouraged them to innovate, quoting Alexander Graham Bell.

“‘Leave the beaten path. Dive into the woods and you are certain to see something you have never seen before.’”

Student speaker Akshay Navaladi recalled April 1, 2005, when, 8,000 miles away in New Dehli, India, he opened the acceptance letter to Boston University that changed the trajectory of his life.

“As we slogged through engineering’s rigorous curriculum, it is easy to forget the real value of the College of Engineering,” he said. “We’ve learned the ability to make real change. When we enter the real world, I’m confident we will try to implement concrete, real change.”

He ended his speech with two encouraging words to his class, borrowed from the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire. “Jai ho! – let victory prevail.”

“It feels awesome,” said graduate Rahul Ahuja. “I never thought this day would come.”

In a hooding ceremony held on Saturday, May 16, the College recognized the 43 candidates who completed their doctoral degrees.

“Your Ph.D. training goes well beyond classroom teaching, it extends to friendship, camaraderie,” said Associate Dean Selim Unlu. “Ph.D. students build strong and enduring friendships, often with strangers from diverse backgrounds. They stand here at the gates of new lives with bigger families.”

Assistant Professor Timothy Gardner addressed the graduates. On leave from the College of Engineering, he is an associate director of computational biology at Amyris, a company that uses synthetic biology to engineer microorganisms to produce renewable fuels and life-saving drugs.

Friends and families filled the Photonics Building’s 9th floor colloquium room to overflowing as Gardner imparted two key lessons: faith and action.

He told the story of his first lecture as a graduate student, when a prestigious Nobel Prize winner stood up during his talk, yelling, “This is all wrong, all wrong!”

Eventually, though, Gardner got a grant and got the genetic switch to work that he’d been speaking about when interrupted.

“The lesson is, ignore the naysayers because they really don’t know anything,” said Gardner.

As an exemplar of action, Gardner spoke about College of Engineering Associate Professor Ed Damiano, who has dedicated his research program to beating juvenile diabetes, the disease his son has.

“Ed is relentlessly optimistic,” said Gardner. “His NIH grant application was denied; they said it wouldn’t work, though he had included data specifically showing that it would.”

Instead, Damiano persevered, found other funding sources, and his diabetes control technology is now in human clinical trials.

“Ed was not the first to think of this idea. The difference between Ed and the rest of the world is that he did it. He took action to make it reality. Ideas are created through action,” said Gardner.

“Engineering is not just the foundry of the tangible, it is the foundry of the idea itself,” he said in closing. “Go forth, do the impossible and make the world a better place for us all.”

To view Venkatesh Narayanamurti's Commencement speech, please click here.