Catching Up with ECE Faculty
by A.J. Kleber
Navigating campus can be challenging this time of year, especially with snowfall totals that the Boston area hasn’t seen in over a decade! Here’s your chance to sit back, sip a warm beverage of your choice, and catch up on some recent ECE faculty achievements. There’s even an easy opportunity to pitch in yourself, from the comfort of your own device.
Invented Here!: Vote for Ünlü Nanoparticle Sensor
Distinguished Professor of Engineering Selim Ünlü is an accomplished innovator, whose work frequently bridges the gap between academic research and practical, commercial applications. Named Boston University’s 2021 Innovator of the Year and more recently, the recipient of a 2025 Ignition Award, Ünlü holds 26 patents. One of his most recent, U.S. Patent No. 12,392,721, entitled “Pixel-diversity nanoparticle detection by interferometric reflectance imaging sensor,” has been selected for recognition at the Boston Intellectual Property Law Association (BIPLA)’s 15th annual Invented Here! Event.
The invention, an imaging system which can be used to detect both synthetic and naturally-occurring biological nanoparticles (BNPs), has significant promise for biomedical applications. This has already been demonstrated in a study published last year, in which the technology formed the basis for an optical biosensor designed to rapidly detect the presence of viruses such as mpox.
Invented Here! showcases and celebrates “outstanding science and technology innovations” developed in New England by a locally-residing inventor, with a patent issued within the last five years. A smaller number of “featured” honorees, selected by votes from BIPLA members and the general public, will be invited to speak about their innovative work.
To vote for Professor Ünlü, please visit this form and select “Pixel-diversity nanoparticle detection by interferometric reflectance imaging sensor,” the second item in the list. (You can vote for multiple inventions if you wish.) You’ll need to do this before the event, scheduled for Wednesday, March 4.
“Firm” Impact Earns Recognition
Almost ten years after presenting a paper at the Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium in 2016, Professor Manuel Egele and colleagues won first place in the 2025 Cybersecurity Artifacts Impact competition at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in December. This award specifically recognizes work which has had a meaningful impact on privacy and security research–and beyond.
The artifact in question, FIRMADYNE, was the first automated dynamic analysis system designed to assess the security of Linux-based Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices “in a scalable manner”. (Devices such as wireless routers; often the single line of defense between a user’s personal device and the open Internet.) The paper which presented FIRMADYNE, “Towards automated dynamic analysis for linux-based embedded firmware,” has been cited 622 times, according to Google Scholar, and has become a common baseline or building block for further research.
Beyond purely academic pursuits, FIRMADYNE has also been used and expanded on in the open-source software community, incorporated into a professional training course by security company Attify, and used by a number of Boston University students in classwork and research projects.
Honored for Editorial Dedication
Peer-reviewed journals and publications are the backbone of scientific research; as such, the service of scholar-editors is absolutely crucial to the entire collaborative ecosystem from which technological advancements and discoveries emerge. In recognition of an exemplary term of such service, Professor Emiliano Dall’Anese has been awarded Outstanding Associate Editor of IEEE Control Systems Letters for the year 2025. Professor Laura Menini, Editor-in-Chief, commended Professor Dall’Anese on his “great commitment and technical rigor” in the performance of work which she called “key for the reputation of our journal.”
What She (TED) Talks About, When She Talks About Data Centers
The impact of power-hungry AI data centers on global energy and the environment is a significant and well-publicized issue which the average member of the public can read about regularly in the news media. Professor Ayșe Coskun, Director of CISE and Chief Scientist at EmeraldAI, is a leader in the effort not only to mitigate this looming crisis, but to turn it right on its head. EmeraldAI’s mission is to transform these AI facilities into assets which help to stabilize the grid.
Professor Coskun gave a talk on this very subject this past October at TEDAI in San Francisco. To learn “why the technology causing this crisis might be the only thing smart enough to fix it,” you can now watch her lecture online.