Molly Callahan - News @ Northeastern

Close-up of a semiconductor chip in Matteo Rinaldi's lab. Rinaldi is a professor of electrical and computer engineering.

There's a shortage of semiconductor chips. That may be a good thing.

The shortage of the chips that serve as the brainpower in millions of electronic devices has shown, yet again, how brittle global supply chains are. But, say Northeastern professors who study the technology and supply chain management, it's a chance to re-imagine electronics, and how we make them.

by Molly Callahan April 20, 2021

Here’s why it’s important to call the Johnson & Johnson vaccine review phase a ‘pause’

Public health authorities find themselves in a delicate position when it comes to the messaging about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines to the United States public, two Northeastern scholars of public health law and communications say. “I think regulators have to thread a very fine needle, and they’re doing so in a moment that is very fraught,” says law professor Wendy Parmet.

by Molly Callahan April 16, 2021

This year’s fully virtual RISE expo on April 15 features a record-breaking 457 research projects. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

RISE goes virtual for its biggest year yet

There will be more than 450 student research projects on display at the 10th annual Research, Innovation, Scholarship, and Entrepreneurship expo on April 15—all of which viewers can experience from the comfort of their own homes.

by Molly Callahan April 14, 2021

Heather Clark, a professor in the departments of bioengineering and chemistry, works at the Chemical Imaging of Living Systems Institute in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex. Clark helped develop a nanosensor that can image communication between the brain and the body. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

New nanosensor holds promise for diagnosing, treating neurological disease

Every movement in the human body—from lifting our arms to our beating hearts—is regulated in some way by signals from our brains. Until recently, scientists tracked and understood that brain-body communication only after the fact. Researchers at Northeastern have developed a new type of nanosensor that allows scientists to image communication between the brain and the body in real time.

by Molly Callahan April 12, 2021

Gregory Abowd, Dean of the College of Engineering. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Gregory Abowd is a computer scientist. That’s what makes him a great fit as new dean of the College of Engineering.

Abowd is a computer scientist and mathematician; he comes to Northeastern as a former professor and endowed chair in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. The future of engineering, he says, is deeply enmeshed with computing, and vice versa. And, he adds, his “outsider perspective” gives him a fresh sense of direction for the college.

by Molly Callahan April 7, 2021

Northeastern president Joseph E. Aoun pledges action plan following rise of anti-Asian bias in the US

In an event Monday held in response to a rise in racist acts in the U.S. against people of Asian and Pacific Island origins, students, faculty, and staff shared personal experiences and called for action—both personal and institutional.

by Molly Callahan April 6, 2021

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Giving Day–April 8–to redouble focus on student groups and organizations

Northeastern University will celebrate its fourth annual Giving Day on April 8, a daylong philanthropic event created to strengthen ties in the Northeastern community and raise funds for student groups and organizations on campus. With more groups participating than ever before, organizers say they hope to set new records this year.

by Molly Callahan and Alison Booth April 5, 2021

Christina McNeil, a web producer and social media specialist in Northeastern’s College of Engineering, has been baking all her life. In 2017, she teamed up with Soldiers' Angels to send care packages full of homemade baked goods to service members. Here, some of her oatmeal peanut butter cookies await packaging. Photo courtesy of Christina McNeil

To bake 20,000 cookies for service members, it takes an engineer’s approach

In college, Christina McNeil says she was known for being good at two things: “complex variable equations and cookies.” Now a web producer and social media specialist in Northeastern’s College of Engineering, McNeil is still prolific in the latter.

by Molly Callahan April 1, 2021

The U.S. is developing vaccine passports, but to where exactly?

The Biden administration announced this week that it would work with the private sector to build out a vaccine credential program that would enable people to prove they’ve been inoculated against COVID-19. But such a program, also called a vaccine passport, faces an uncertain future in the courts, say two Northeastern legal scholars who also worry that it could exacerbate existing inequities in the vaccine rollout.

by Molly Callahan March 31, 2021

Nearly a year on, NUPD Advisory Board helps expand transparency and access

The Northeastern University Police Department Advisory Board has helped to open up access to information about policing on campus. And, board members say, they’re just getting started.

by Molly Callahan March 30, 2021

Posts by Molly Callahan