Alumni
Alumni Engagement
We are excited to enlist alumni to help us make BU Spark! a great resource for students. We are seeking alumni experienced with technology innovation in the private, public and social sectors. We offer a wide range of opportunities to engage from workshops to long-term mentoring or coaching. If you are interested in getting involved in any of the programs below, please contact us at BUSpark@bu.edu.
Entrepreneurs in Residence
Entrepreneurs in Residence are distinguished BU alumni whose professional experiences sit at the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship, computer science, computer engineering and related disciplines. The program will evolve to be an opportunity for distinguished alumni to deepen their engagement with Boston University while making a significant contribution to the BU Spark! mission. Benefits and activities will include an office at BU Spark! (Hariri Institute), access to student interns for projects, a platform, a self-directed portfolio based on EIN proposals and 5-10 hours per month dedicated to mentoring of student teams, guest lecturing, and competition judging.
Guest Speakers @ Tech Thursdays
On select Thursdays, BU students, faculty, and staff from the BU Spark! community gather together for an informal networking and social event. We would love BU alumni to share their experiences and expertise in the field of technology with our students. Tech Thursdays provide a wonderful opportunity for alumni to connect with students who share the same interest and helps them stay engaged with the Boston University community.
Judging Opportunities
There are various judging opportunities available for alumni to help evaluate proposals or projects developed by our student teams. These opportunities span a variety of events from hackathons to product showcases to applications from students interested in the Spark! in Residence summer program. Our judges’ input will provide great insight for students in terms of feedback and advice on the process of technology innovation, how to overcome difficult challenges, and domain specific inputs. With the knowledge and expertise of our judges, we trust in their contribution to the overall success of student leaders within the BU Spark! community.
Fund a Student Team
BU Spark is seeking partners to provide opportunities for advanced level computer science students to apply their skills to real world problems. Our students can tackle projects covering a wide range of areas that include: data analytics, data mining, software engineering, computational game theory, mobile application development, data mechanics, machine learning, deep learning, computational audio, computer network security, cloud computing and more. The benefit to partner organizations is accessing a team of budding computer scientists to work on projects for their organization, for free. These project assignments are completed during 4-6 weeks during the Fall and Spring semesters as part of a course requirement or on a more flexible basis through student-consulting teams.
New Ideas
We are open to new ideas from our alumni community that would deliver on the goals of BU Spark! We would love to hear from you if you have a proposal that would help us ignite the passion of students by exposing them to diverse applications for their technology skills, provide opportunities to practice innovation, or support the launch of student innovation ventures.