Imaging and Optical Science

Imaging and Optical Science is a highly interdisciplinary area of study that combines expertise in fields spanning optics, materials, mathematics, computer science, and information science. Whether it’s probing a biological specimen or detecting an obstacle during navigation, light measurement in combination with advanced signal processing has demonstrated the ability to reveal information that was undetectable even a short while ago. Among a wide spectrum of exciting research problems in this domain, ECE faculty are currently involved in novel sensing and spectroscopic material design, optoelectronic imaging device development, integrated system and algorithm design, as well as microscopy and spectroscopy related to applications in biology, brain science, medicine, defense and security. Research activities in Imaging and Optical Science reach far beyond the department and the college thanks to cross-disciplinary collaborations facilitated by the Photonics Center, the Hariri Institute, and the Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering, just to name a few. We invite you to explore our research activities, meet our teams, and read about our success stories by visiting the faculty, lab and research center pages below.

Affiliated Faculty

Osama Alshaykh, Irving Bigio, David Boas, David Castañón, Ji-Xin Cheng, Farouk El-Baz, Vivek Goyal, Clem Karl, Janusz Konrad, Robert Kotiuga, Min-Chang Lee, Jerome Mertz, Siddharth Ramachandran, Michelle Sander, Joshua Semeter, Selim Ünlü,  Lei Tian, Brian Walsh, Tianyu Wang

Affiliated Labs

• AI Photonics Lab
• Biomedical Optics
• Cheng Group
• Computational Imaging Systems
• High Dimensional Photonics
• Information and Data Sciences
• Optical Characterization and Nanophotonics
• Semeter Space
• Signal Transformation and Information Representation
• Ultrafast Optics
• Visual Information Processing

Affiliated Research Centers

• Center for Information and Systems Engineering
• Center for Space Physics
• Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications NSF ERC
• Nanotechnology Innovation Center
• Neurophotonics Center
• Photonics Center
• Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering
• Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering

In the news:

• October 31, 2025

  Matters of Perception

  Professor Goyal receives funding for long-distance 3D imaging and atmospheric sensing. [ More ]

• October 15, 2025

  Seven ENG Faculty Honored for Real-World Impact Research

  The annual Ignition Awards honor innovative BU projects that are ready to make the move toward commercialization, from the research phase to consumer use. Given by BU Technology Development within the University’s Office of Research, the awards come with financial backing, as well as a dedicated advisory committee to provide expertise, [ More ]

• August 8, 2025

  CAREER Award for AI Intermediary

  Professor Kayhan Batmanghelich has received a CAREER Award to create an AI system to translate between medical AI systems and clinicians. [ More ]

• May 13, 2025

  Building The Future – Ask Us How!

  How five BU ECE researchers teamed up with Boston’s Museum of Science to share their scientific expertise with the next generation. [ More ]

• April 2, 2025

  The Image of Accomplishment

  Professor Janusz Konrad has been elected to the rank of 2025 Fellow of the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) for his contributions to visual motion analysis and video processing. [ More ]