“Why Not You?”
2022 graduates urged to step up and tackle today’s challenges
By Patrick L. Kennedy
The latest cohort of Societal Engineers to stride forth from Boston University have the chance to build on the successes and redress the missteps of previous generations as they seek new solutions to the globe’s daunting problems, Vanessa Feliberti Bautista (’93) told an audience as the College of Engineering celebrated its 2022 Commencement with a series of events honoring earners of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.
“The world needs engineers to provide solutions for making renewable energy affordable and accessible, reverse-engineering the brain, protecting voting rights, securing cyberspace, advancing personalized learning, and providing access to clean water,” Bautista said on May 21 to a crowd of about 450 bachelor’s degree recipients and their families gathered in Agganis Arena.
“Just as we are facing multi-dimensional changes, we are entering a technology era with potential for 10- to 100-fold improvements to our society,” said Bautista, Microsoft’s head of M365 Services Platform. “Who will make those changes? Why not you? Will you continue with the same focus, ingenuity and perseverance? Will you continue to design and innovate new ways in your industry career as you have in your academic career?”
In the 1990s, Bautista helped craft Microsoft’s email system, today used by 400 million people. She chose computing as a field because “I wanted to be in the center of the action,” she said. “This is your moment. The world needs great minds—your great minds.”
To be clear, “Great minds do not think alike,” added Bautista, who serves on the ENG Leadership Advisory Board. “This is the time to step into your place, find your voice, go boldly into the world of creation, discovery and impact that is engineering.”
Student speaker Jodee Shauna Frias admitted that she didn’t truly understand the term “Societal Engineer” until she was in the thick of coding a final project—“an app that someday, somehow may make life easier for someone”—for EK 125 Intro to Programming for Engineers.
“The real reason that we are engineers is to have a chance to make a difference in the world,” said Frias, on the cusp of receiving her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. “Being a Societal Engineer is not just advancing your knowledge in these subjects, but learning how your use of this knowledge affects the landscape of our future . . . creating quantitative and effective solutions to global issues and being able to say that you are proud to use the skill set that you learned within the walls of Boston University to inspire real change in this world.”
Three of Frias’ classmates tied for valedictorian: Devin Bidstrup, Elizabeth Hanchar, and Aksel Laudon all earned perfect 4.0 grade point averages throughout their time at BU.
As for faculty, Lecturer Andy Fan (BME), Assistant Professor Gianluca Stringhini (ECE), and Assistant Professor Emma Lejeune (ME) each earned their Department Award for Teaching Excellence. Fan also earned the College Award for Teaching Excellence. Professor Muhammad Zaman (BME) and Associate Professor Dan Cole (ME) earned the Faculty Service Award.
At the graduate convocation and doctoral hooding ceremony on May 19, Anand Krishnamurthy (’92, ’96) urged 316 master’s and 84 doctoral graduates to set lofty goals for themselves.
“It’s better to aim high and miss than to shoot low and hit,” said Krishnamurthy, who is corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure. “Make sure you’re not limiting yourselves because you’re afraid of failure. It turns out failure is the greatest teacher, because when you fail, you think about why you came up short, and you spend time thinking about how the world works. If you embrace failure, you set yourself up for success in the long term.”
Moreover, Krishnamurthy urged graduates to be kind and humble. “If you see somebody visibly struggling, you need to stop and help them out,” said Krishnamurthy, who serves on the ENG Leadership Advisory Board. “But at some point, everyone struggles, even if they don’t show it, so it makes sense to be kind to everybody.”