Dr. Avak Kahvejian spoke of big ideas and collaboration between industry and education at Convocation Thursday, as the event’s keynote speaker.
Kahvejian, a partner at the biotechnology company Flagship Pioneering, described the importance of working toward big goals, even when they seem meaningless.
He talked about his time in a biochemistry lab as a PhD candidate in the early 2000s. “My research focus was important, but quite obscure,” he said. “Years later, it would pave the way for my being present at the birth of LS18, the 18th life sciences company to emerge from Flagship Pioneering.
”Today it is known as Moderna,” Kahvejian said. “Moderna generated a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine at record speed — a feat only possible because its mRNA bio platform, 10 years in the making, was already up and running.”
“Turns out, my graduate work in early mRNA research wasn’t so meaningless after all,” Kahvejian added. Moderna’s vaccine, created just two days after they received the virus’s DNA sequence, according to Kahvejian, saved nearly 2 million lives.
He also mentioned opportunities for collaboration between UMass Boston and its industry neighbors, including three companies he founded, which are housed just a mile away at an industrial complex called Southline, formerly The Boston Globe’s headquarters. “We share a commitment to inclusive excellence and big ideas. We know that progress happens when we work together,” Kahvejian said.
“I urge you to take full advantage of this amazing city. It can be hard to fully appreciate what’s happening in Boston. On the surface, it can look just like a bunch of nondescript buildings, and the molecules we focus on are literally invisible,” he said. “Yet throughout this remarkable community, breakthroughs are in the making. While they’re not always something you can point to — like a rocket or an electric car — together, they have the potential to transform the world.”
Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco spoke before him about AI and its uses, including fighting climate change and developing medical treatments, but also its harmful effects. “Like all transformative technologies since the dawn of reading and writing and agriculture, AI can expand possibilities, but also unleash new threats,” he said.
“We see, for example, a flood of bogus AI generated content that influences markets, damages reputations, roils politics, and sustains racist narratives. We see loan approval AI algorithms that show bias against minorities, and we see the privacy of consumer data compromised,” Suárez-Orozco said. “These threats need to be addressed.”
He also talked about how AI could be used at UMass Boston. “Going forward, we want to lead in incentivizing artificial intelligence for the greater good. Our engagement with AI aims to ensure that a UMass Boston education cultivates the ability to apply artificial intelligence to improving the ways we live,” Suárez-Orozco said.
Kahvejian, too, spoke about AI, pointing to it as a way to develop those big ideas. “At flagship, we often talk about AI not as artificial intelligence, but as augmented imagination. We once thought of it as science fiction, and it’s now simply becoming science,” he said.
Prior to the chancellor’s speech and the keynote address, Provost Joeseph Berger recognized 34 new faculty, 11 newly-tenured faculty, 12 new full professors, 18 promotions in the non-tenure-track and 5 librarian promotions.
After the speeches, Suárez-Orozco invited attendees to the chancellor’s barbecue on the Campus Center plaza. “I will be manning one of the stations, so come over. They’re hot. They’re juicy. They’re ready to go. I’m talking about veggie burgers, cheeseburgers, the works,” he said. “Thank you all for being with us.”
