Boston University Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

09/01/2026

On August 25, the New York Times published “This A.I. Start-Up Aims to Reverse the Backlash Against Data Centers: Emerald AI, now valued at $1.05 billion, uses software to keep power demand at the computing facilities from getting out of control.” The piece discusses recent trends in public opinion regarding the AI-driven build-out of data center facilities nationwide, as well as the work of Emerald AI, an ambitious start-up where Professor Ayșe Coskun (ECE, SE) serves as Chief Scientist.

Read more: https://www.bu.edu/eng/2026/09/01/on-reversing-the-data-center-backlash/

08/31/2026

Congratulations to Professor Kayhan Batmanghelich on delivering a keynote speech at this summer’s Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA) in Dublin, Ireland!

08/13/2026

Boston University researchers, co-led by ECE Professor Brian Kulis, are collaborating on a DOE Genesis Mission project with colleagues at Princeton University. Kulis's expertise with machine learning for large-scale data analysis will be instrumental in developing AI models trained on large-scale kinetic plasma simulations. https://www.bu.edu/eng/2026/08/11/bu-partners-on-doe-genesis-mission-award-to-advance-ai-driven-plasma-physics-research/

08/12/2026

Congratulations to Professor Vivek Goyal on winning the 2026 Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Computational Photography (ICCP)!

07/23/2026

Professor Douglas Densmore, an expert in computer-automated design and manufacture who specializes in synthetic biology and microfluidics, has long been dedicated to making the biotechnology field as accessible and collaborative as possible. A new $20 million grant from the NSF, part of a large national effort, offers all that and more.

The project will be used to enhance and extend the capacity of the Design, Automation, Manufacturing, and Processes (DAMP) Laboratory, founded by Densmore, which will become part of a national network of AI-powered "cloud" labs offering remote experimentation.

"We're trying to lower the barrier to engagement," says Densmore. “We hope long term it’s going to democratize the space and lower the capital expenses of building up a biotechnology company.”

Read more: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2026/nsf-awards-20-million-establish-national-cloud-lab-network/

07/15/2026

Science fiction abounds with predictions for a future where biological engineering is used for a broad range of everyday applications, from advanced gene therapies to effective and scalable biofuels. With genome sequencing, synthetic cellular growth and development, and machine learning technology capable of analyzing vast quantities of data at incredible speed, we seem poised on the verge of making such futures a reality. The primary obstacle is, quite simply, the problem of predictability. Living things are infamously variable, erratic, even untamable, right down to their most basic building blocks. In order to take control of those building blocks and use them in a deliberate fashion on a societal scale, we need to be able to achieve consistent results.

That’s the goal Ph.D. student James Roberts will be pursuing as a Scholar-in-Residence at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s Living Measurements Systems Foundry (LMSF), one of five inaugural participants in a joint internship program by the NIST and NSF. The project will be an extension of Roberts' doctoral research under advisor and CIDAR Lab PI Professor Douglas Densmore.

Read more: https://www.bu.edu/eng/2026/07/15/writing-the-biotechnology-rulebook/

07/15/2026

Artificial intelligence is reshaping every industry, creating new opportunities for engineers.

The online MS in Software Engineering for Artificial Intelligence at Boston University College of Engineering prepares working professionals to design, build, and scale production-grade software systems that responsibly integrate artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs).

Program at a glance:
• 100% online
• 30 credits
• Complete in as little as 16 months (4 semesters)
• Fixed tuition: $25,000 for the entire program
• Start in August or January
• Next application deadline: August 10 for Fall 2026 entry

Learn more & apply today! https://bu.edu/eng/omse/

07/02/2026

Do you or a colleague have a project idea to make the world a better place? This is your opportunity to tap into the energy of our rising ECE seniors!

BU's ECE Department is seeking engineering project ideas for seniors to complete during their capstone course.

Submit your project idea here by the end of the month: https://forms.gle/xzQJ4NStsYNRKXWG9

06/29/2026

ECE Ph.D. student Fatih Acun's recent paper has been featured in a news post by Utility Dive, which goes on to discuss work at Emerald AI, where his advisor Ayse Coskun is Chief Scientist. Read it here:

Hyperscalers want their data centers online and utilities want to provide interconnections, but experts say both are still looking for common operating guidelines.

06/24/2026

MIT Technology Review features Professor Ayse Coskun and her work as Chief Scientist with Emerald AI in a recent article examining solutions to the data center energy use problem: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/16/1138591/data-center-online-quickly-electric-grid-flex/

"Of all the approaches to flexibility, Emerald AI’s may be the most ambitious: asking data centers to dial into the grid’s needs. The company’s Conductor software, which can run on premises or in the cloud, builds on the research of chief scientist Coskun. Her group at Boston University showed in a pair of 2013 papers that a data center could watch the grid and help balance big power fluctuations, such as the intermittent effects of solar and wind power. By 2022, she and her colleagues had tested their methods on a cluster of 36 research servers and shown that the system could respect power limits without breaking the processes it was running."

As the data-center boom puts pressure on the grid, some companies say the answer isn’t just more power plants but software that dials down centers’ energy-guzzling ways when demand spikes.