Office Artifacts: Mo Khalil

ENG assistant prof shares ways he engages with students

Office Artifacts: Mo Khalil

ENG assistant prof shares ways he engages with students

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Ahmad "Mo" Khalil, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University College of Engineering

Espresso machine Scientific Conceptualized Art in the office of Ahmad "Mo" Khalil, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University College of Engineering

Knowing he enjoys coffee, Khalil’s father-in-law gave him this Nespresso coffeemaker. “The idea for it was to try to encourage students to come and meet with me and share their data,” Khalil says. “It hasn’t worked as well as I had hoped, so maybe I need to become a better barista.”

Turkish rug in the office of Ahmad "Mo" Khalil, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University College of Engineering

This Turkish rug was a gift from Khalil’s parents, who found the tapestry on their travels over two decades ago.

Scientific Conceptualized Art in the office of Ahmad "Mo" Khalil, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University College of Engineering

Members of the Khalil Lab have a goal: making the cover of a journal publishing one of their scientific papers. Khalil asks his wife, a designer, to conceptualize art that complements each paper. “We have been very successful getting the covers of journals, in large part thanks to her,” he says.

2015 Award for Teaching Excellence in the office of Ahmad "Mo" Khalil, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University College of Engineering

Khalil won the ENG department of biomedical engineering 2015 Award for Teaching Excellence (one of three he’s earned in his four years at BU).

Retro Fanny Pack in the office of Ahmad "Mo" Khalil, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University College of Engineering

This retro fanny pack was a gift from a student so Khalil wouldn’t have to have to fish around in a bag of candy when he threw goodies to students during large lecture classes.

Click on the circles above to see more of what Mo Khalil displays in his Cummington Street office.

December 7, 2016

Amy Laskowski

Cydney Scott

Although some faculty shy away from teaching large lecture-hall classes, they appeal to Ahmad (“Mo”) Khalil, a College of Engineering assistant professor of biomedical engineering.

“I like to teach the big undergrad classes,” says Khalil, who can be found leading ENG’s control systems in biomedical engineering and thermodynamics and statistical mechanics courses. “Undergrads are a lot of fun. If you bring energy to the big, undergrad core engineering courses and you keep them interactive instead of classic lecture-based, students respond really well.”

An expert in synthetic biology and antibiotic resistance, Khalil recently won a 2016 New Innovator Award sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project that will focus on developing new, more rapid techniques for diagnosing antibiotic resistance to better manage and treat infections. Members of his lab use synthetic biology to understand cells’ molecular basis for solving computational and information-processing problems; they then use that information to create genetic programming languages that allow them to engineer cells for a range of therapeutic and diagnostic applications.

In the classroom, Khalil is renowned for infusing his lectures with energy by rewarding student participation. With a neon-green fanny pack stuffed with candy buckled around his waist (a gift from a student), he stands at the front of the lecture hall and lobs a piece of candy to any student who asks a question or offers a comment.

“Some of these lecture halls are pretty big, so I have to hit them with accuracy all the way across the hall,” he says. “A lot of times I miss and hit other people.”

Khalil joined the ENG faculty in 2012 (he came to BU in 2008 as a postdoc), and his enthusiasm and unconventional teaching methods have won him several teaching awards, including the biomedical engineering department’s teaching award—three times. Last year, he was named ENG’s Outstanding Professor of the Year.

In our series “Office Artifacts,” BU Today highlights interesting artifacts professors display in their office. Have a suggestion about someone we should profile? Email orourkej@bu.edu.

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