Ignite Change from Year ONE with the First-Year Innovation Fellowship
The First-Year Innovation Fellowship (FYIF) is a semester-long program designed specifically for first-year students at Boston University. Whether you have a fully formed venture idea or just a problem you care about, FYIF provides the coaching, community, and resources to help you turn passion into impact. This year, participating in FYIF gives you a Creativity, […]
SPH: PhD Student Awarded Fellowship to Advance Environmental Justice in Jails and Prisons
Zanyah Williams, a BU School of Public Health PhD student in environmental health, has been named a 2026 Innovate@BU Enlight Fellow. The $10,000 fellowship will support a summer internship at Roca, a Chelsea, Mass. nonprofit, as Williams develops her own social venture focused on addressing environmental health hazards in jails and prisons. Read the […]
Video: “Your Dreams Have a Lot of Power,” Says 2026 Graduate Mark Lucas
Engineering major says BU taught him the skills and provided the community he needed to launch a start-up inspired by his late mother’s illness
2026 Innovators’ Night Recap: Magnesis Robotics and Farms for Thought Win Top Prizes
Innovate@BU awarded $86,000 across the New Venture Competition and community awards on April 15 at George Sherman Union.
BU Student Innovators Are Reimagining How We Eat, Dress, Work, and Even Treat One Symptom of Brain Disorders
Campus spaces, programs, and contests across Boston University help students turn their big ideas into reality
Meet the 2026 Enlight Fellows
The Enlight Fellowship is a 10-week summer program generously funded by the Enlight Foundation and run by Innovate@BU. Fellows split their time between a placement at a social impact organization and venture development programming, and each receives a $10,000 stipend. This year’s cohort spans graduate and undergraduate programs, with professional experience reaching from Boston to […]
Announcing the 2026 New Venture Competition Finalists
The 2026 New Venture Competition has its finalists! After rounds of applications and semi-final pitches, ten ventures will compete for more than $80,000 in total prizes — with $20,000 going to the first-place winner in each of the NVC’s two tracks, General and Social Impact. Second place in each track takes home $10,000, third earns […]
Everything You Need to Know About the First-Year Innovation Fellowship
The First-Year Innovation Fellowship (FYIF) is a semester-long program designed specifically for first-year students at Boston University. Whether you have a fully formed venture idea or just a problem you care about, FYIF provides the coaching, community, and resources to help you turn passion into impact. And, for the first time, participating in FYIF gives […]
Looking Back on the 2025 First-Year Innovation Fellowship Experience!
The fall 2025 First-Year Innovation Fellowship wrapped up with 20 first-year students presenting ideas ranging from AI-powered meal planning to self-healing suture pads. Representing seven countries and a variety of BU schools, this cohort tackled problems in sustainability, healthcare access, digital literacy, and beyond. While FYIF has been around for more than five years, this […]
From Hospitals to Rooftop Farms, How the 2025 Enlight Fellows Spent Their Summer
On a summer evening somewhere around week eight, the ten members of the 2025 Enlight Fellowship cohort found themselves at BU Beach, talking about the world’s biggest problems and what they intended to do about them. They came from different schools, different disciplines, different countries. But as they sat together watching the sun set over […]