BU Questrom School of Business researchers found a surprising rise in goodwill toward capitalism, an economic system exemplified by New York City’s financial district (pictured). Photo by Alex Potemkin/iStock

Research News

Brink Bites: Studying Cigarette Restrictions, the Life of a Famed Poet, and Shifting Attitudes Toward Capitalism

Other research news, stories, and tidbits from around BU, including an exploration of views on economic systems, research on tobacco price minimums, and support for student research

The Brink’s latest collection of news nuggets, short stories, and other thought-provoking snippets from the world of Boston University research—including a $6 million award to advance wireless capabilities, a symposium showcasing student researchers, a study using artificial intelligence to track shifting attitudes toward capitalism, and a deep dive into the life of a Spanish poet who was friends with Salvador Dali.

BU Engineer to Colead $6 Million Project to Advance Wireless Capabilities 

The Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub has awarded a $6 million grant to a new project coled by a BU engineer that aims to spur the domestic development and manufacturing of cutting-edge semiconductor chips. Rabia Tugce Yazicigil, a College of Engineering assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, will work with colleagues from academia and industry to pioneer what are known as universal data decoding chips to “develop US capabilities in wireless communications with applications spanning Internet of Things devices, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and mobile communication,” reports the BU Center for Information & Systems Engineering’s communications specialist Margo Stanton (CAS’24, Pardee’24). The team hopes the chips will have ultralow energy consumption. Yazicigil is a faculty affiliate at the center and at the University’s Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering. The NEMC Hub is a regional research hub established through the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act and the grant has renewable funding for up to three years. 

How Have Attitudes Toward Capitalism Shifted?

For many around the world, the United States is seen as a bastion of capitalism, for better or worse—but what do Americans think about the economic system? Following reports of rising ambivalence toward profit-driven commerce, BU researchers recently studied shifting attitudes toward three major economic systems—and found a surprising rise in goodwill toward capitalism. Using artificial intelligence, they scoured 400,000 newspaper articles, published over decades, for references to capitalism, communism, and socialism. The AI program then rated each article’s attitudes toward the economic systems mentioned as positive, negative, and neutral or unknown, tracking any shifts since the 1940s. The research was led by Jay L. Zagorsky and H. Sami Karaca, both faculty at BU Questrom School of Business and its Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute for Business, Markets, and Society. (The institute was founded last year to study business’ role in the world and potential to positively impact society.) “While capitalism clearly isn’t beloved by all, we didn’t find evidence that it’s being overtaken by socialism or communism,” the researchers wrote in an article summarizing their findings in The Conversation. “Instead, using AI to process the attitudes reflected in thousands of newspaper articles, we found that people—or at least the press—are slowly warming to it.”

Cigarette Price Law Linked to Fall in Sales

A new BU School of Public Health–led study has found that an Oakland, Calif., law that set a minimum price for cigarettes and cigars led to a 15 percent decline in cigarette sales. “Our findings show that setting a minimum price on tobacco products can be an effective policy for reducing tobacco sales, especially in local jurisdictions that are preempted by state law from establishing an excise tax,” Justin White, an SPH associate professor of health law, policy, and management, told the school’s news team. According to the researchers, the Oakland law setting a minimum $8 price per pack didn’t appear to push smokers into shopping in neighboring areas. The results were published in the journal Tobacco Control.

Scholarship to Fund Photonics Research

BU has teamed up with SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, to offer a major new scholarship that supports research in photonics, a field focused on exploring applications of light. The scholarship is funded by a $500,000 gift from SPIE—which was matched by BU—and is open to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. “The SPIE-Boston University Scholarship in Photonics offers critical support for the future of photonics,” says SPIE CEO Kent Rochford. “By supporting the education of photonics researchers as well as potential photonics industry leaders, [it] will have an ongoing impact on the field for generations to come, and we are delighted to partner with the University on this enterprising venture.”

Symposium Celebrates Student Research

At BU’s medical school, future doctors don’t just learn how to care for patients, they also explore ways to improve healthcare. “Nearly all medical students will be doing some kind of research during their time here,” says Matthew Layne, BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine assistant dean of research. The annual BU Medical Student Research Symposium highlighted the work and findings of 84 students, covering topics from cardiovascular risk to pneumonia immunity to the treatment of lupus. “I’m interested in pursuing a career in academic medicine, so research was something I wanted to explore further and improve my skills,” one of the participating students, Nikki Zangenah (CAMED’26), told the medical school’s communications team. “There are a lot of benefits to doing research. It keeps you current on new medications and exposes you to the characteristics of diseases that you might not see in your own practice.”

BU Scholars Contribute to Major New Exhibition on Spanish Poet

Like the art of his friend and collaborator Salvador Dali, Spanish poet Federico García Lorca’s work was infused with surrealism. But while Dali lived a long life, Lorca’s was cut brutally short. He was murdered in 1936, aged 38, by the nationalist forces of Francisco Franco. Now, a new exhibition at the Centro Federico García Lorca in Granada, Spain, is shedding new light on the poet’s life, work, and assassination. The exhibition was cocurated by Christopher Maurer, a BU College of Arts & Sciences professor of Spanish and associate chair of romance studies. It also features original research and other contributions by BU scholars, including Fran Ramallo, who teaches in BU’s Study Abroad program; graduate students Josh Dunn (GRS’22,’25,’28) and José Quispe (GRS’24,’25); and Iris Fitzsimmons Christensen (CGS’21, CAS’23, Pardee’23) and Laura Mayron (GRS’23). The exhibition, titled Lorca y el archivo: Memoria en movimiento (“Lorca and the Archive: Memory in Motion”), runs until May.

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