Posted February 2023

Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951, National Engineering Week promotes and appreciates the work of engineers throughout the country. From mechanical, to chemical, civil, and electrical—there are many types of engineers, and countless ways that they are making an impact on the world. From February 19–25, we’re recognizing and celebrating BU engineers who are innovating and influencing society as we know it.

Atri Raychowdhury (ENG’15)

Senior Product Manager of Sony Music Entertainment, Atri Raychowdhury (ENG’15) was recently named on Forbes 30 Under 30. Raychowdhury is a founding member of Sony Music’s data strategy group. He helped the company launch analytics tools for executives and artists. Raychowdhury also conceived and now coleads Sony Music’s STEM Leadership Program, introducing underserved New York City teens to STEM career paths in music.

Austin Briggs and Justin Fiaschetti

Also joining Raychowdhury on Forbes 30 Under 30 are Co-founders of Inversion Space, Austin Briggs and Justin Fiaschetti. The duo, who both studied engineering at BU, created their company just two years ago. According to the New York Times, they aim to “turn space into the next frontier for express deliveries” by building Earth-orbiting capsules that would deliver goods anywhere in the world.

Xin Zhang

Last year, College of Engineering Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Xin Zhang, was awarded the 2022 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Fueled by curiosity and a sense of possibility, Xin Zhang has propelled the field of metamaterials—synthetic materials with functional properties not found in nature—to new heights. Most recently, she built devices that could improve the accessibility and quality of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines and cut rampant noise pollution.

Christopher Chen

BU’s Christopher Chen was recently elected as a National Academy of Inventors Fellow. The biomedical engineer is honored for his work to pioneer cures for heart attacks, liver disease, and more. In just the past year, Chen co-founded a regenerative medicine company—securing $110 million in funding to boost its organ-healing technology—and helped build a miniature beating heart that could speed efforts to repair damage from a heart attack.

Vivek Goyal

Vivek Goyal was recently named one of Boston University’s three latest American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellows. Goyal, who has won multiple awards from the IEEE Signal Processing Society, is currently a College of Engineering Professor and Associate Chair of Doctoral Programs for Electrical and Computer Engineering. His work in computational imaging combines elements of signal processing, statistics, computation, physics, and more—in order to help us see and observe the world with greater clarity.

Karen Panetta (ENG’85)

In a predominantly male field, Karen Panetta (ENG’85) has spent her career advancing opportunities for women in STEM. A current Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dean of Graduate Education at Tufts, Panetta is also the author of Count Girls In, and founder of Nerd Girls, a women in STEM mentoring program. Panetta was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of the highest distinctions in the field of engineering, for empowering females in STEM and for her contributions to computer vision and simulated algorithms.

While this list only encompasses a tiny fraction of BU’s incredible engineers, each year more and more students, professors, and alumni are making the Terrier community proud. This week, take some time to recognize the incredible engineers in your life.