Converging to Meet Today’s Challenges
The College embarks on a bold new strategy to solve some of society’s pressing problems
By Michael Seele
At a time when meeting society’s challenges means bringing expertise from many fields together, the College of Engineering is embarking on a bold new strategy that converges multiple disciplines to address some of the most critical problems facing society. This formalized approach to addressing broad, interdisciplinary challenges makes the College unique among the nation’s engineering schools.
“The Boston University College of Engineering has long enjoyed an unbounded culture of collaboration among researchers from multiple departments within the College and throughout the University,” said Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen. “Over the next 10 years, we will leverage and scale that strength in a new structure that emphasizes solving some of society’s most pressing challenges. This will impact every facet of the College’s mission, from research to education to our partnerships with industry.”
The College has already begun implementing the plan by opening three junior faculty searches that aim to attract scholars interested in this new approach, and seeking an associate dean who will foster their professional growth. Going forward, approximately one third of the College’s annual faculty searches will seek researchers targeting one or more of six convergent themes: synthetic biology and tissue engineering; intelligent, autonomous and secure systems; neuroscience and neuroengineering; materials by design; photonics and optical systems; and energy and sustainability.
Success in each of these areas will rely on researchers from diverse fields converging and innovating solutions. Synthetic biology, for example, draws not only biomedical engineers, but also researchers in computing and data science, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, nanotechnology and material science. Each has a contribution to make to solving problems like antibiotic resistance, 3D printing personalized tissue to repair damage from diseases like heart attacks, and creating implantable biological sensors, among others.
“Funding agencies have been emphasizing convergent research to solve really important problems for several years now, but engineering schools haven’t restructured to take advantage of convergence. We have,” Lutchen said. “We are in a unique position to leverage our longstanding culture of collaboration across disciplines to propel excellence in engineering research and education.”
Two of the current assistant professor searches are seeking researchers in the areas of synthetic biology, tissue engineering and mechanobiology, with emphases on predictive, digital and personalized medicine, and cellular engineering and manufacturing. The third search is in the area of intelligent, autonomous and secure systems, specifically robotics and autonomous systems with an emphasis on machine learning. These faculty members are likely to have appointments in multiple departments and will seek collaboration with groups of researchers to solve societal challenges at the convergence of multiple fields.
The College will create a new position — associate dean for research and faculty development – to support and mentor convergent faculty and evaluate the impact of the selected convergent themes. This associate dean will coordinate with the departments to further foster collaboration.
“The Boston University College of Engineering has long had a culture of unbounded interdisciplinary collaboration,” noted Lutchen. “This new strategy will leverage that asset and will be scaled up in a way that makes us truly unique among the nation’s engineering schools.”
The concept of convergence will extend beyond research, Lutchen added. The College will seek opportunities to further integrate these cross-disciplinary areas into the curriculum, to seek out multi-dimensional relationships with industry, all while creating a culture of impactful inclusion.