Boston University

Mechanical Engineering

Photo: A picture of a man in a dark plaid suit looking at the camera. There is a reflection of his face on the table he is leaning against

Awards

BU’s Innovator of the Year Has Pioneered Devices to Advance Astronomy, Microscopy, Eye Exams

May 7, 2024

Photo: Pictures of women walking while carrying things on their heads

Mechanical Engineering

How Do People Carry Such Heavy Loads on Their Heads?

April 3, 2024

Photo: A set of 4 large orange robotic arms assembling a large electric car battery on a production line

Batteries

The Race to a Battery-Powered Future

January 18, 2024

Image: A Modern wire frame mesh design vector illustration of the year "2023". Numbers are depicted with glowing neon green low polygonal digits on black background.

2023 in Review

Best of The Brink 2023: 10 Life-Changing Inventions, Amazing Discoveries, and Surprising Findings from BU Researchers

December 11, 2023

Collage: (From left to right, top down) Photo: Philadelphia Eagles' C.J. Gardner-Johnson catches a pass during practice at the NFL football team's training facility, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, in Philadelphia. A Black man wearing a dark green and white Eagles' football uniform and helmet catches a football in his hands, Photo: A flatlay of the iLet Bionic Pancreas, a bionic pancreas approved at the FDA. The device is a black box with a wire attached with two additional attachments, Photo: An unidentified person standing in a generic store pharmacy holds over the counter medicine in the aisle as they try to make a decision, and Photo: A white hands holds up a petri dish holding the yeast candida auris in a laboratory. a Petri dish with speckles of white dots/fungi is shown.

2023 IN REVIEW

What Were BU’s Most-Read Science and Research Stories in 2023?

December 11, 2023

Photo: A paper showing various blood-like handprints and splatters is shown.

Crime Scene Science

Video: Updating the Science of Bloodstain Analysis and Forensics

October 20, 2023

Photo: Two researchers wearing blue surgical masks and purple gloves, look closely at an excised bovine cartilage specimen.

Osteoarthritis

New Noninvasive Light-Based Device Could Help Diagnose Osteoarthritis Early

August 21, 2023

Collage: Headshots of NSF CAREER Award winners. From top to bottom, left to right: Jessica Simes, Michael Economo, Renato Mancuso, Hadi Nia, and Alyssa Pierson.

CAREER Awards

BU’s 5 NSF Grant Winners Are Changing Conversations in Robotics, Computing, Mass Incarceration, Neurology, and More

June 23, 2023

Photo: BU’s Xin Zhang (right) collects the STAT Madness 2023 All-Star award from Nicholas St. Fleur, a STAT general assignment reporter and associate editorial director of events. An Asian woman (right) with short black hair and wearing a purple collared shirt holds up a clear glass trophy with a Black man with brown hair in a curly poof and wearing a tan suit.

Metamaterials

Xin Zhang Wins STAT Madness 2023 All-Star Award

May 11, 2023

Photo: Engineering Professor, Dr. Ji-Xin Cheng, an Asian man wearing a grey pullover sweater, poses for a photo in his lab. A blue light gives the photo a cool-themed feel as Cheng looks to the left and stands in front of a table full of various mechanical engineering equipment.

Innovator of the Year

Ji-Xin Cheng Is BU’s 2022 Innovator of the Year

May 1, 2023

Photo: Xin Zhang, an Asian woman with short black hair and wearing a burnt orange collared shirt is shown smiling and standing with arms crossed poses in her lab. She wears Computer materials can be seen behind her.

Metamaterials

Xin Zhang to Compete for STAT Madness All-Star Award

April 25, 2023

Image: Concept illustration of Advanced Air Mobility, with its many vehicle concepts and potential uses in both local and intraregional applications. Mockup of multiple types of aircrafts are depicted flying over urban, suburban and rural areas.

NASA

Delivery Drones and Rotor-Powered Rideshares Sound Great—and Noisy

March 14, 2023

From left, Oliver McRae, Lena Dubitsky and James "Jacy" Bird, an ENG associate professor have been studying what bubbles can teach us about how microplastics, viruses, and bacteria aerosolize. Bird just put out a paper on his findings. The team worked in the lab, Wednesday, February 15, 2023. Photo by Jake Belcher. Three people stand in a lab setting with highspeed cameras and other technical equipment setup nearby.

Bubbles

New Bubble Popping Theory Could Help Track Ocean Pollution and Viruses

March 9, 2023

Photo of Cloudy blue skies reflecting in the windows at the BU Kilachand Center. A long figure walks by on the sidewalk.

Kilachand Fund

The Kilachand Fund’s Impact on Science’s Biggest Challenges

September 26, 2022

Photo of a series of black and grey brain scans.

Brain Health

New BU Center for Brain Recovery Aims to Advance Treatments for Stroke, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s

September 19, 2022

Boston University Professor of Engineering, Xin Zhang, poses for a portrait in her lab.

Accolades

Engineer Xin Zhang Awarded 2022 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship

May 10, 2022

Photo of PhD student Ke Wu wearing a magnetic Metamaterial device. The hat is made of materials in red, yellow, and blue.

Metamaterials

This Bizarre Looking Helmet Can Create Better Brain Scans

February 10, 2022

Inventing

Engineering Scholar Greg Blonder Elected to the National Academy of Inventors

December 14, 2021

BU engineers Brian Walsh and Emil Atz work on the Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (CuPID) satellite which uses a new kind of optical technology to enable wide-field X-ray imaging of magnetic fields from inside a shoebox-size package.

SPACE SCIENCES

CuPID Satellite Will Take Widest Ever Images of Earth and Sun’s Magnetic Fields

September 27, 2021

NSF CAREER Awards

5 Projects That Push the Limits of Physics, Fabrication Techniques, Algorithm Design

June 30, 2021

5 Projects That Push the Limits of Physics, Fabrication Techniques, Algorithm Design