BU Ramps Up Strategy on AI
Boston University is creating the Artificial Intelligence Development Accelerator for Academic and Administrative Excellence, an initiative designed to coalesce the long-standing and widespread investment in AI at BU. Informed by the findings of two interdisciplinary task forces that investigated the matter, the initiative will foster collaboration across BU. Faculty and staff can share best practices, coordinating the University’s adaptation of AI as a tool to make BU more innovative, efficient, and creative.
After Five Years of Planning, Pardee’s New Home Will Unite Global Studies School
Boston University is building a new home for the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at 250 Bay State Road. Plans for the 12-story, 186-foot-tall building indicate that it will be the largest-mass timber tower on the East Coast.
BU’s Kenneth Lutchen Named AAAS Fellow
Kenneth Lutchen, Boston University’s senior advisor to the president for strategy and innovation, has been named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow. Lutchen is a scholar in respiratory mechanics, an innovative leader in higher education, and dean emeritus and professor of biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering. The world’s largest general scientific society, AAAS annually confers this honor in recognition of those with careers filled with scientific and socially distinguished achievements.
Success! BU Telescope Lands on the Moon Aboard NASA’s Blue Ghost Mission 1
In a historic first for the University, the BU-developed LEXI (Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager) telescope is operating from the lunar surface and will image Earth’s magnetic shield. The X-ray emission data LEXI captures will advance our understanding of the relationship between Earth’s magnetic field and the sun’s solar wind. The telescope is attached to NASA’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 spacecraft, which blasted off from Florida on January 15, 2025 and touched down on March 2, 2025.
Everything You Want to Know about the Warren Towers Renovation Project
After more than half a century of wear and tear, Boston University’s Warren Towers are receiving major upgrades. These three towers along Commonwealth Avenue house 1,800 Boston University undergraduates and are the second-largest nonmilitary dormitory in the country. The massive $550 million renovation project includes changes to rooms, suites, air conditioning, the dining hall, bike storage, and much more.
BU Wins 32nd Beanpot Title, Beating BC 4-1
Boston University’s men’s hockey Terriers defeated the No. 1–ranked Boston College Eagles at TD Garden February 10, 2025. After falling behind in the first period, the Terriers won their record 32nd Beanpot Championship with a 4-1 victory.
Four BU Researchers Win National Honor for Early-Career Scientists and Engineers
Boston University faculty Elizabeth Bettini, Wen Li, Michelle Sander, and Zeba Wunderlich each received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The BU professors’ work includes research in special education, lasers, genes and DNA, and space plasma physics and magnetospheres. There have been just eight previous BU presidential award winners since the accolade was founded nearly 30 years ago.
Bionic Pancreas Company Cofounded by BU Researcher Hits the Stock Market
Beta Bionics, the maker of the iLet Bionic Pancreas (an automated insulin delivery device for people with type 1 diabetes) has gone public, allowing anyone to buy shares in the company. The iLet was invented in the Boston University lab of Ed Damiano, a College of Engineering research professor of biomedical engineering, and a cofounder of Beta Bionics. The company hopes going public will help raise funds for product development and infrastructure expansion.
NASA’s Blue Ghost Mission to Deliver First BU-Engineered Device to the Moon
A telescope created by Brian Walsh, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, and his team, will be hitching a ride on NASA’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander. The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) will be the first BU-created device to land on another planetary body. “LEXI will image, for the first time, the boundary of Earth’s magnetic field,” Walsh says, and how it deflects solar wind and charged particles emanating from the sun.
BU Helps Massachusetts Expand Access to AI Computing
Boston University will play a major role in the AI Hub, a Massachusetts entity that will drive collaboration in cutting-edge artificial intelligence among state government, academia, and business. The Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC)—a 12-year-old supercomputing facility that opened with funding from BU and others—will provide “leading-edge, AI computing infrastructure in support of the AI Hub.”
