WPI News

With nine new representatives elected in July, WPI’s inaugural Staff Council is now at full strength. The 18 staff members from offices and departments across WPI make up a diverse group that acts as a collective voice for the interests and needs of WPI’s non-union staff, helping to foster a positive and inclusive environment at WPI. The Council evolved from WPI’s strategic plan, Lead with Purpose, which sets as a goal to “expand the voice of staff in steering the university.” Through regular meetings with leadership in the Division of Talent & Inclusion and other administrators, Staff Council advocates for WPI’s non-union staff members while also supporting the university’s mission and strategic goals. The initial cohort, elected in July 2022, spent several months developing a governance structure and constitution. Now the full body has begun discussions with university leadership about a variety of staff issues, including work schedules and improving communication on matters that have a direct impact on staff. Watch for updates about those conversations in future emails and announcements. In the meantime, the most recently elected Staff Council members share in their own words why they got involved and what they hope to achieve. We’ll hear from three in each installment. Lusine Baghsarian, Executive Assistant (Innovation & Entrepreneurship) Why did you want to run for Staff Council? I’ve been part of the WPI community for the past 10 years. I enjoy the vibe and positive outlook everyone brings to campus. I want to use my skills to help improve staff engagement and give back to the WPI staff community. The staff plays a pivotal role in the operations of the university. Thus, having a robust and connected staff community is important for WPI’s vitality. What are the top three things you hope the Council will be able to accomplish? Create opportunities and events for staff members to come together to foster connections and relationships across departments, building a sense of community and belonging. Create opportunities for staff members’ personal and professional growth through a holistic approach that supports a healthy lifestyle. Improve communications among staff, faculty, and leadership. How do you think WPI as a whole will benefit from having a Staff Council? I think the Staff Council will help reduce obstacles and challenges some staff members face, which will help make their work experience more pleasant while also improving operations’ efficiency. Adrienne Boertjens, Assistant Director of International Student Life (International Operations) Why did you want to run for Staff Council? As a relatively new member of the WPI community, I’m excited to collaborate with and get to know colleagues across campus. I believe building staff relationships is paramount to our ability to best serve our students, and I’m excited to advocate for WPI staff in creating a holistically healthy work environment. What are the top three things you hope the Council will be able to accomplish? I hope we can create an environment where our input is well received and thoughtfully considered by decision-makers at the institution. I also hope we can enhance overall staff cohesiveness through collective networking and event planning, and ultimately foster a culture that enables us to be more effective professionals. How do you think WPI as a whole will benefit from having a Staff Council? Staff Council provides staff the opportunity to advocate for ourselves and gives us a “voice” where we might otherwise have none. It also provides a platform for professionals across various areas to connect and collaborate in ways we may not have previously explored. I believe Staff Council not only strengthens WPI’s current professional community, but also serves as a positive indicator of our campus culture for prospective employees. Nicole Caligiuri, Grants Specialist (Office of Sponsored Programs) Why did you want to run for Staff Council? When I started at WPI six years ago, many people helped me gain institutional knowledge, and with each role I’ve taken on, my colleagues trained me and helped me grow professionally. This collaboration has had a great influence on me, and serving on Staff Council is a way for me to build new lines of communication with colleagues. What are the top three things you hope the Council will be able to accomplish? I want to help create a strong foundation so that Staff Council develops its full potential as a tool for staff communication, idea exchanges, and growth. I hope to work with peers across the university to bring people together to communicate and share ideas. I look forward to helping develop methods of healthy communication throughout our community and discussing matters that are important to the staff with WPI leadership and then circling back with staff. How do you think WPI as a whole will benefit from having a Staff Council? I think it is important to have open lines of communication so that information can easily and effectively be shared throughout the WPI community. I look forward to continuing the work that has been done already in this area so that years from now the WPI Staff Council will be a strong and thriving entity that serves all community members positively.

Four Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers, inspired by everything from kombucha to cave rescues, received prestigious CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) during the most recent academic year. Jeannine Coburn, Loris Fichera, Tian Guo, and Markus Nemitz received grants that will support their research for five years, provide research opportunities for WPI undergraduates, and inform courses for both graduate and undergraduate students. Their awards marked the second consecutive year that four WPI researchers received the early-career grants. “All four of these faculty members are undertaking groundbreaking research that could lead to real-world benefits in the fields of health care, augmented reality, and robotics,” says Bogdan Vernescu, WPI vice provost for research. “Their research also will enrich education at WPI by informing their teaching in classrooms and inspiring creative student research projects in labs.” CAREER Awards are NSF grants that support early-career researchers who have the potential to become leaders in research and education at their institutions. NSF, a federal agency, selects about 500 researchers a year for CAREER grants and awards about $250 million a year to new and existing recipients. (See a list of WPI researchers who have received CAREER Awards here.) The NSF program encourages researchers to pursue projects that will build the base for a lifetime of scholarly work. The grants also require applicants to integrate their research into new or existing courses for students, outreach to the public, or other educational activities. WPI’s resources for faculty members and the university’s emphasis on project-based learning, especially through the senior year project that all undergraduates must complete to graduate, make the university a favorable setting for CAREER Award projects, Vernescu says. The STEM Education Center can work with faculty members to develop science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and the Morgan Teaching and Learning Center can advise faculty members on successful strategies for grant applications. “The Morgan Center can help WPI researchers think about how they are already infusing their scholarship into teaching and learning, understand what will stand out to NSF reviewers, and devise plans for educational activities,” says Kimberly LeChasseur, senior research and evaluation associate at the Morgan Center. “The goal is to show the NSF that WPI researchers are a good investment.” Researchers who received CAREER Awards during the 2022-2023 academic year: Jeannine Coburn, an assistant professor in WPI’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, was awarded $606,146 to develop a transparent wound dressing that was inspired by a natural biopolymer she observed when fermenting kombucha at home. She will attach antimicrobial peptides to a cellulose produced by Komagataeibacter hansenii, a bacteria found in food, to produce a material that can cover and treat a wound while remaining transparent so that health care workers can visually inspect tissue without disturbing it. Coburn also will develop educational activities for elementary school students and WPI undergraduates, and she will provide summer lab positions to first-generation college students. Loris Fichera was awarded $599,663 to enable surgical robots to treat disease through the focused delivery of energy, such as light, without cutting or touching human tissues. An assistant professor in the Department of Robotics Engineering, Fichera will develop a technique that will use low-intensity energy pulses to map a site in the body and determine how much focused energy a surgeon should apply. He also will build better control and automation into surgical robots, including a hand-held laser device he is developing to vaporize tumors in the vocal folds of a patient’s throat. Fichera plans to create research opportunities in his lab for up to 60 WPI undergraduates and expand a graduate-level course on surgical robots. Department of Computer Science Associate Professor Tian Guo was awarded $657,776 to develop software techniques that will improve the performance and privacy of mobile augmented reality (AR) systems, with a focus on edge computing servers that process data close to their physical source. Her project will develop ways to better capture high-quality data from smartphones and other AR devices at a scene while also ensuring the privacy of sensitive data. Guo will develop techniques to coordinate and schedule AR tasks on edge servers for speedier experiences, and she will build a testbed to evaluate AR applications. Guo will create research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Markus Nemitz, an assistant professor in the Department of Robotics Engineering, was awarded $599,815 to develop an innovative architecture for low-cost custom robots capable of swimming, crawling, climbing, and diving through hostile and confined spaces as part of search-and-rescue operations. Nemitz will develop small and flexible 3D-printed robots with integrated fluidic circuits that can be rapidly fabricated for specific disasters, and he will test the robots in a miniaturized model that will be built at WPI to replicate parts of the Tham Luang cave in Thailand where flooding trapped 12 members of a youth soccer team and their coach in 2018. He also will develop a robotics summer camp for girls. “Combining high quality research with excellent teaching is a quality that distinguishes WPI faculty members,” says Vernescu. “Their CAREER Awards and other accomplishments help set WPI apart as a premier technological university that prepares its graduates for success.”

National Science Foundation Taps WPI Fire Protection Expertise and Resources for the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center Worcester Polytechnic Institute will provide important expertise to the NSF Center’s work to address catastrophic wildfires, save lives and property, and increase community resiliency; partnership also expands the Center’s footprint to the East Coast. Worcester, Mass.—September 25, 2023— Over the past 22 years, wildfires in the United States have caused damages exceeding $100 billion, and as climate change continues to intensify wildfire frequency and severity, research is essential to protect lives, property, and ecosystems—and to help communities adapt to these changing conditions. To this end, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has added Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) to its Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center (WIRC), a collaboration between universities and industry. Supported by a three-year, $450,000 grant with additional direct funding from industry partners, WPI will build upon its longstanding expertise in fire protection and work with San Jose State University to study new fire detection methods, robotics solutions to enhance first responder safety, and fire suppression systems for wildfires. “The solutions to our current wildfire issues are going to require creative thinking across multiple sectors and disciplines,” said Dr. Kendra McLauchlan, Program Officer at the National Science Foundation and chair of the NSF Wildland Fire Initiative Working Group. “This is exactly the approach taken by WIRC, and the new site at WPI adds some really exciting capacity. We are looking forward to the innovations this industry-university partnership is able to achieve.” “In a rapidly changing environment, where past experience can get you only so far, research really shows its value as the best way to understand, predict, and adapt to the major challenges faced by our societies,” says Albert Simeoni, WPI fire protection engineering professor and department head. “Many of these issues are interdisciplinary, so we need strong collaborations from a variety of experts. Not only do we have some of the world’s leading fire protection expertise, but WPI’s state-of-the-art Fire Protection Lab provides rare access to equipment to conduct experiments, enabling researchers to extract fundamental measurements of fire ignition and conflagration. I am grateful to be part of this Center that will allow us to leverage our research and resources—and expand our knowledge in one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our times.” Simeoni is a world-renowned wildfire researcher and is the WPI principal investigator of the Center. Other WPI fire protection engineering researchers include Professor Ali Rangwala, Professor Nicholas Dembsey, and Assistant Professor James Urban, whose work will encompass: - Trailblazing Research Depth: focusing on human safety and community resilience within the wildland-urban interface by investigating small-scale fire behavior, fire impact at the fire-front level, fire protection systems, and firefighter safety. - Revolutionizing Fire Behavior Analysis: understanding fire spread through different layers of vegetation, characterizing firebrands, and generating reliable fire behavior data. - Innovations in Fire Detection and Suppression: conducting groundbreaking studies on new fire detection methods, robotics for enhancing first responder safety, and sophisticated fire suppression systems for wildfires. - Diverse Training for Future Leaders: contributing to the creation of a diverse STEM workforce that can effectively tackle the complex challenges posed by wildfires, ensuring a multifaceted approach by a new generation of fire managers, city planners, fire analysts, and fire meteorologists. “We’ve seen the frequency and severity of wildfires increase rapidly in recent years – as well as the tragic human impact and destruction they cause,” said John McNeill, the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of WPI’s School of Engineering. “This partnership will further advance critical groundbreaking research that can reshape our understanding, prediction, and management of wildfires — and, ultimately, save lives.”

Sharing our research, video games, and expertise in project-based learning. Brushing up on our athletics skills. Welcoming new students to campus and the community. Enjoying lunchtime concerts (and free ice cream!) in the Campus Center. Coming together to create some irrational aerial art. And that’s just the beginning—what else did you do on your summer vacation, WPI? Incoming new students at WPI got their first taste of campus life during the First-Year Welcome Experience events held throughout the summer. The Summer Breeze Concert Series is a wonderful way for the community to gather and spend time together (and enjoy free ice cream) during the summer months. Have you had a chance to meet Franklin yet? Keep an eye out for the newest addition to the Residential Services team! President Grace Wang and Holy Cross President Vincent Rougeau signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on combined Bachelor’s/Master’s programs, which will combine the distinctive strengths of both institutions. From Worcester to, well, Worcester—the Galactic Einsteins from Zwelethemba High School in Worcester, South Africa, was one of the teams participating in the first-ever WPI Annual FIRST LEGO League Open Event. Overall, the event’s participants represented nearly three dozen states and more than a dozen countries. Students who participated in WPI’s summer programs had a blast building robots in the Innovation Studio. Students (from WPI and other colleges and universities) who spent the last 10 weeks on campus conducting research, presented their work at the Summer Research Showcase on August 3 in the Innovation Studio. The WPI football team started preparing for their 2023 season with an intrasquad scrimmage before classes began. Students who completed the MassDiGi Summer Innovation Program showed off their games to the WPI community during the annual showcase event in the Innovation Studio. Faculty and staff from colleges and universities around the world traveled to WPI for the Institute on Project-Based Learning, where they received an enhanced understanding of project-based learning and a tailored plan to advance work on their own campuses. The Women’s Soccer team was all smiles as they kicked off practice for the 2023 season. President Wang extended a warm welcome to new students and their families while helping with Move-In Day procedures. New students gathered in Harrington Auditorium for a convocation address to kick off the new academic year. Students who are underrepresented in STEM or at WPI and identify as BIPOC, ALANA, LGBTQIAP+, or first-generation are invited to attend Connections, a pre-orientation and academic immersion program designed to assist in a smooth transition from high school to college. There’s nothing like the celebration that comes with the annual Earle Bridge Crossing, and this year was no exception. Students were able to start picturing the new year at WPI and catch up with friends—new and old—during a variety of New Student Orientation activities, including activities fairs, Orientation Olympics, and Greek Carnival. There’s nothing WPI students can’t do when they work together—it’s all easy as, well, pi.

Middle school students experienced pronounced setbacks in math during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a potentially groundbreaking new study led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute will examine the lasting impact of those gaps on students now that they are in high school. The study’s findings could inform national education policy and could bolster the argument that socioeconomic disparities that affect minoritized communities have played a role in exacerbating those gaps. Several major studies confirmed that American middle school students’ math achievement declined during the pandemic, but there has been less attention paid to how those students are faring in high school. Ji-Eun Lee, a research scientist with the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies at WPI, is principal investigator on the study, which will be funded by a $50,000, 1-year “rapid research” grant from the Arizona State University’s Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). CRPE received $9 million from the Walton Family Foundation last year to examine how American school systems responded to the pandemic. Lee said the new study will analyze data on nearly a million students, which was collected before and during the pandemic through a nationwide testing program that assesses general math, geometry, and algebra skills. The study seeks to guide policymakers through contributing factors that led to a decline in middle school math achievement during the pandemic, and will examine the relationship between math performance, course taking, and longstanding, systemic issues that affect minoritized populations in the American education system. “Those kids might have been moved from virtual learning to in-person learning too early, or they didn’t get adequate support at home, or there were accessibility issues,” Lee said. “It’s really complicated. Something’s going on, and it’s not just educational technology. It really gets tangled up with pre-pandemic disparities that existed.” Erin Ottmar, an associate professor in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies, and Megan Kuhfeld, senior research scientist at NWEA (formerly Northwest Evaluation Association), a K-12 assessment and research organization — a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), are co-principal investigators. Lee and Ottmar said the new study will look for evidence of continued rebounding in math achievement for high school students, and will look at how high school students’ algebra I and geometry course-taking and achievement levels during the pandemic compare to pre-COVID benchmarks. The study will also look for evidence of different achievement patterns for minoritized students and students attending schools with high levels of poverty. Ottmar said it’s important to understand these students’ trajectories in the midst of a national debate over how early students need to be exposed to higher-level math like algebra I. “You have these two populations, and there’s already disparities,” she said. “You can basically predict who’s not going to pass algebra 1 early on by their prior achievement. We know pandemic disparities disproportionately affected kids from marginalized populations, which probably means if they push kids even sooner into algebra 1, then the gaps are going to get bigger.” Early exposure to algebra could lead to positive outcomes and solid preparation for college for many students. But introducing it too early to students who were already struggling with math could set them up for failure, Ottmar said. Lee and Ottmar hope their nationally representative look at whether COVID-19-related math achievement gaps follow students through high school will add much-needed empirical data to national policy discussions on how to address U.S. students’ struggles.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Erin Ottmar has launched a three-year project that will determine how using visual elements in mathematical equations, specifically spacing around numbers and colorful type, could help students learn algebra. The project, funded with a $667,617 grant from the National Science Foundation, focuses on how visual cues could shift attention to different elements that students perceive when working on algebraic equations. The findings could impact math curricula and classroom teaching. “When students look at a math equation, they see numbers and symbols in space,” said Ottmar, an associate professor in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies and principal investigator on the study. “Our idea is that by using a colored font and spacing around groups of numbers in both helpful and unhelpful ways, we can help students recognize and think about correct or incorrect ways to solve an equation.” The research is based on perceptual learning theory and focuses on a critical mathematical concept known as the order of operations, which dictates the sequence of steps to follow when solving a mathematical expression with multiple operations. Students learn to solve operations inside parentheses first, followed by exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction to reach the correct solution. Failure to follow the order of operations can lead to incorrect solutions. Ottmar said that in her research, students who struggle with math often do so because they ignore the order of operations. Working with collaborators in Virginia and Indiana, Ottmar will examine the individual and combined effects that using a colored font and spacing around different numbers can have on students’ ability to correctly follow the order of operations while solving math problems. The researchers expect to recruit a total of 1,800 students for two studies in Virginia and Georgia. An important issue will be whether color and spacing, when combined with technology interventions, could lead to better, longer-lasting learning. The project builds on Ottmar’s previous research into real-time artificial intelligence tools for teachers to better detect, assess, and predict students’ math strategies and knowledge; the role of perceptual learning in mathematics; children’s physical gestures and eye movements when learning to solve equations; and using physically active games as an aid to math learning. Ottmar will work on the project with Ji-Eun Lee, a research scientist in WPI’s Learning Sciences and Technology Program; Caroline Byrd Hornburg, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech; Avery Harrison Closser, a postdoctoral scientist at Purdue University; and Jeffrey Bye, a cognitive scientist and consultant. “This research benefits from bringing together scholars with expertise in education, psychology, math, and the learning sciences,” Ottmar said. “Knowledge from these fields will help us address the core problem, which is that we need to intervene to help younger students develop the core skills needed to succeed at algebra so they do not fall behind and give up on math.”

WPI High Power Rocketry Club Achieves Lofty Goals at Spaceport America Cup Team’s Entry Hits Mach 0.8, Takes Home Awards Battling scorching temperatures and dusty winds in the New Mexico desert, the WPI High Power Rocketry Club (HPRC) recently achieved its first successful launch at the Spaceport America Cup. At around 11:40 a.m. June 22, the WPI crew launched Capricornus, its solid-fueled rocket, into the sky. Blasting just beyond its 10,000-foot goal, the 12-foot-long, 70-pound rocket deployed its parachute after reaching an apogee of 10,264 feet, and gently returned to the ground. The launch earned the team the Jim Furfaro Technical Excellence Award and a third place in the Payload Challenge, sponsored by Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University. The team focuses on the annual Spaceport America Cup, which calls for teams to construct a rocket and successfully launch it while carrying a small payload. This year the payload included a unique quadcopter designed to deploy weather data collection cubes in the desert, inspired by NASA’s scientific missions to other planets. The Spaceport America Cup unfolds over several days and includes a conference that allows students to present their projects in front of judges from sponsor companies that include Blue Origin, Onshape, Virgin Galactic, and Relativity, to name just a few. HPRC current members and alumni are working at some of those companies and more, including SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Astra, Odyssey Space Research, Maxar, and Raytheon Technologies. This year the WPI Structures Team of the HPRC received an exclusive invitation to give a podium presentation in front of judges, industry professionals, and fellow competitors. Rocket Lead Terence Tan ’24 and Structures Lead Tobias Enoch ’25 presented the development of the team’s threaded aluminum couplers, a critical part of the rocket’s structure. In addition to Tan and Enoch, members of this year’s Spaceport Cup team included the following: Class of 2023: Abby Hyde, Julia Sheats, Jake Roller, Kevin Schultz, Michael Beskid, Newton Le, and Logan Frandsen Class of 2024: Jackson Neu, Jonathan Whooley, Keelan Boyle, Haggay Vardi, Rayden Morley, Aunika Yasui, Cameron McAfee, and Kelli Huang Class of 2025: Cameron Best, Dan Pearson, Hunter Crossman, Henry Lambert, Emma Pollak, Francisco Diaz Quinones, Sarah Semy, Ryan Truher, Max Friedman, and Lyle Edwards Class of 2026: Dylan Dsilva, Kate Lindsay, Daniel Willins, Nikolaos Gerakaris, and Nikhil Gangaram The team’s sponsors included WPI Giving Day Donors, WPI Tinkerbox, Altium, Test Devices by SCHENK, Ensign-Bickford Aerospace and Defense, ENDAQ, Collins Aerospace, Blue Origin, and Atomic Machines

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has received $18.6 million in philanthropic commitments that will be announced and celebrated during the installation of Grace J. Wang, PhD, as the 17th president of WPI, on Friday, March 22. The gifts, from seven generous WPI alumni and friends in the last two months, include the fourth largest to the university to date, are in support of Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “Ever since joining WPI a little over a year ago, I have been inspired by our community’s passion for our student-centric mission and commitment to our innovative culture,” says Grace J. Wang, President of WPI. “As we come together to propel our university to an even higher level of excellence, I am deeply grateful to these alumni and friends whose generous support will help our innovative community meet this moment with creativity and agility.” “WPI’s global community of alumni, parents, friends, and partners has always cared deeply about this university and the important research, teaching, and hands-on project-based learning that happens here and beyond our campus,” says George Oliver ’82, chairman and CEO of Johnson Controls, WPI trustee, and National Campaign Chair. “We are grateful to these generous alumni and friends for their remarkable support of WPI and of President Wang. The magnitude of their contributions speaks volumes about their confidence in her leadership of our university as we celebrate her inauguration.” The $18.6 million in total commitments support facilities, WPI’s distinctive global projects program, an endowed professorship and faculty research, and undergraduate scholarships: Mike Abrams ’77 and his wife, Nancy, have made a seven-figure commitment, and the fourth largest gift to the university to date, which will support future capital projects. Mike was an electrical engineer in the oil and gas instrumentation industry and before retiring had become an independent consultant. He is a model of alumni involvement and has served in numerous volunteer capacities over decades, including on the Alumni Association board, the Presidential Search Committee that brought President Wang to WPI, reunion committees, and many other committees and boards. He frequently attends WPI events, on campus and around the country; he has received the Herbert F. Taylor Award for Service to WPI from the WPI Alumni Association. A consistent and generous annual and major donor to WPI, Mike he has supported a plethora of funds and initiatives at the university from academic departments and scholarships to varsity athletics and intramural teams and a wide range of student organizations. Creating space for living and learning has remained a priority for Mike throughout his philanthropic history with his alma mater. The Abramses’ recent capital gifts to the university include renovations that created the Alumni Center at Higgins House, which resulted in the naming of the Nancy and Mike Abrams ’77 Library in Higgins House; leadership support of Unity Hall (WPI’s newest academic building), which includes the Nancy and Mike Abrams ’77 Multi-use Lounge and Creative Zone; and a recent gift to support renovations to Stratton Hall, home of the Mathematical Sciences Department, Mike’s major at WPI. Diran Apelian and his wife, Seta, have established the Apelian Family Armenian Project Center Endowment with a seven-figure gift. Endowing the Armenian Project Center fulfills a personal passion for the Apelians while providing support for WPI’s distinctive hands-on project-based learning. For several years, Diran Apelian served as co-director of WPI’s Armenian Project Center, engaging students in solving real-world problems that impact communities and organizations. He is WPI Provost Emeritus (1990-1996), the founding director of the Metals Processing Institute at WPI; he founded the largest industrial consortium in North America, the Advanced Casting Research Center. He also founded the Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling (CR3), all initiatives that established WPI’s national and industry prominence in Materials Science and Engineering. In 2018, he was named the WPI Innovator of the Year in recognition of successful start-ups such as Solvus Global and Ascend Elements with colleagues and former students, as well as his contributions to scholarship that bridges academia and industry while also identifying fundamental scientific issues. Steve Vassallo ’93 and his wife, Trae, have made a seven-figure commitment that lays the foundation for the Helen G. Vassallo Distinguished Presidential Professorship, named in memory of Steve’s mother and longtime WPI faculty member. In her time at WPI, spanning some 36 years, Dr. Vassallo became known for her impact on thousands of students and hundreds of faculty and staff through her work in the classroom, as an advisor, as a mentor, and as a colleague. She joined WPI with a joint appointment in the Management Department, for which she was the first woman named department head, and in the Biology and Biotechnology Department. She was also the first woman to be elected Secretary of the Faculty, the highest faculty post. She was devoted to student development through her work advising the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority, her time serving as chair of the Campus Hearing Board, and her teaching for which she received the 2003 Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Teaching. In recognition of her dedication to the WPI community, she received the Goat’s Head Lifetime Commitment Award from the WPI Alumni Association in 2013, among other honors. The remainder will support undergraduate scholarships. “Through their transformational philanthropy, these alumni and friends are helping to secure the future of WPI, and we are so grateful,” says Donna Stock, WPI’s Vice President of University Advancement. “They are ensuring that students from all walks of life have the means to access a WPI education and all it has to offer, that our world-class faculty, dedicated staff, and remarkable students can continue making a significant positive difference in the world. They have put their trust in the skilled and knowledgeable hands of President Wang to advance WPI’s distinctive STEM education, our leading-edge, purpose-driven research, and the innovative ideas that are changing our world for the better.” Beyond These Towers, launched publicly in October 2021 at a global virtual event, positions WPI to continue to transform lives, to turn knowledge into action to confront global challenges, and to revolutionize STEM through its distinctive and inclusive education, projects, and research. The campaign’s theme is a nod to the towers of WPI’s first two buildings, enduring symbols of its guiding philosophy of theory and practice. The campaign provides opportunities for alumni and friends to fund strategic initiatives that support undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and world-changing research, global programs, facilities, and a thriving campus community. To support Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute, visit wpi.edu/+give.

On March 22, 2024, WPI will install a new president, something it has done just 16 times before during its 159-year history. A presidential inauguration is an important rite of passage in the life of a university, a time to honor the institution’s history, traditions, and values, while also setting forth a new vision for its future (something the new president traditionally does through an inaugural address). At WPI, the tradition of inaugurations began with the installation of its first president, Charles O. Thompson, on Nov. 11, 1868, a day of lengthy oratory and ceremony that also included the dedication of WPI’s first building, Boynton Hall. Like all of its predecessors, the inauguration of Grace J. Wang, PhD, will feature a host of traditions, pageantry, and ceremonial flourishes, some unique to WPI and some that trace their origins back to the dawn of higher education. Here is a brief guide to what to watch for as WPI’s 17th president formally assumes her role as the university’s new chief executive. Regalia Traditional academic dress originated in the Middle Ages, when universities were monastic foundations and scholars wore simple monk’s robes with hoods to keep their heads warm. Hoods were later draped down the back and a wide Tudor bonnet (or just its inner lining, or mortarboard) was worn on the head. At the end of the 19th century American universities established a code governing the design and colors of robes and hoods. Today, a graduate degree recipient wears a hood over the robe; the color of the hood’s lining indicates the degree-granting university, while the color of the border indicates the academic degree or discipline. President Wang’s presidential hood is lined in dark blue, the color worn by all PhD recipients. The underside is trimmed with WPI’s colors: crimson and gray. She will wear a specially designed presidential robe of crimson polyester with central panels made of black velvet. Four black velvet chevrons (the symbol of the presidency) decorate the sleeves. The basic design of WPI’s academic robes dates to 2007, when it was decided that all robes (black for bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates; crimson and black for PhD candidates, trustees, and the president) would feature two white WPI seals embroidered on the front panels. The Mace Derived from war clubs, the mace has been a symbol of authority going back at least to ancient Rome, when a fasces, or axe bound within a bundle of rods, was carried in processions before civil authorities. In medieval Europe, bodyguards of civil officials carried maces, and later the mace was carried as a symbol of royal authority. Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is called to order by the Sargent at Arms carrying an elaborate mace that resembles both a club and the Roman fasces. In academia, the mace appears at formal gatherings and ceremonies to symbolize the president’s authority. WPI’s mace, fashioned in 2007, is a 42-inch staff made from fluted cherrywood topped with a circular silver pedestal on which sits, on edge, a large silver medal with the WPI seal on each side. It will be carried at the head of the inaugural procession by acting provost Arthur Heinricher, serving as honorary marshal, while the president will march at the procession’s end. For the recessional, that order will be reversed, with the president marching first and Heinricher with the mace bringing up the rear, in a symbolic gesture showing that the authority over the university has been transferred to the new president. Before WPI had a ceremonial mace, the honorary marshal at inaugurations carried the walking stick of WPI founder John Boynton, a simple wooden staff, painted black, with an ornamental bronze cap. Delegates Traditionally, presidents or other representatives from other colleges and universities—domestic and international—are invited to participate in a presidential inauguration to help welcome the new president. Representatives from learned and professional societies and associations and honor societies are also invited to process. During the procession, the delegates will be arranged in the order of the founding dates of their institutions, with those from the oldest institutions marching first. Colleges, universities, societies, and associations that are unable to send delegates traditionally send written greetings to the new president, sometimes in the form of beautifully calligraphed certificates. The Procession A dignified procession of university community members, delegates, dignitaries, and other special guests, all attired in colorful regalia, is one of the highlights of the inauguration ceremony. For President Wang’s inauguration, the procession will wind from Harrington Auditorium to the Sports and Recreation Center, where the ceremony will take place. It will be led by Acting Provost Heinricher, with the mace, followed by the ROTC color guard, delegates, WPI faculty members (arranged by rank), WPI administrators and deans, emeriti trustees, current trustees, the stage party, and, finally, the president. Greetings It is traditional for the new president to receive greetings during the inaugural ceremony from groups that will be important partners in running the university and carrying out the president’s vision. At President Wang’s ceremony, she will hear messages from WPI’s undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, staff, and faculty; from the City of Worcester (delivered by Mayor Joseph Petty); and from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (via video, from U.S. Senator Edward Markey). Notable greetings in the past came from longtime Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who delivered the keynote speech at the inauguration of Dennis Berkey, WPI’s 15th president, and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, who appeared by video downlink from the International Space Station during the inauguration of WPI’s 16th President, Laurie Leshin. The Installation The heart of the inauguration is the installation ceremony, where the president accepts the symbols of her authority and receives a charge from the WPI Board of Trustees. Essentially, this is the moment when she formally accepts the responsibilities of the office and is welcomed into her new role by the greater WPI and academic communities. Two symbols will be presented to President Wang by board chair William Fitzgerald ’83 and two members of the faculty. The first is the Institute’s original charter. Drafted by Emory Washburn, a prominent lawyer who served in the Massachusetts state legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate, it was signed by the Massachusetts secretary of state on May 10, 1865. The other is WPI’s seal. Designed by physics department head Alonzo Kimball in 1885, it features graphical elements that symbolize WPI’s history and mission, including a heart to represent the city of Worcester; WPI’s German motto, Lehr und Kunst (learning and skilled arts); and a pair of open books and the arm-and-hammer weathervane from the Washburn Shops, which represent WPI’s tradition of balancing theory with practice. The seal, in the form of a silver medallion, hangs on a silver chain that includes among its links small silver plates engraved with the names and years of service of all past WPI presidents. Up through the inauguration of Admiral Wat Tyler Cluverius as WPI’s seventh president in 1939, new presidents also received the keys to the Institute. The Charge At the end of the installation ceremony, the chair of the Board of Trustees reads the charge, which serves as a formal declaration of the Board’s expectations for the new president. The language of the charge has remained relatively constant over the years. During President Wang’s ceremony, Board Chair Fitzgerald will say, “On behalf of the Board of Trustees, and by the power vested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I charge you to perform faithfully the trust we are placing in your hands. You have the full assurance of our help and our prayers for your success. What our university has achieved is only a bright promise of that which we have yet to accomplish.” Other Inaugural Events All of WPI’s presidents have placed their own stamps upon the festivities surrounding their inaugurations, which have included speeches, musical and theatre performances, and dances. Most new presidents have held events for guests. For example, Edward Parrish, WPI’s 14th president, held a luncheon for the campus community under a huge, peaked tent that covered much of the Quadrangle. Presidents Edmund Cranch (No. 12) and Parrish held their inaugurations in the fall to coincide with Homecoming. President Jon Strauss (No. 13) held his on May 10, 1985, the 120th anniversary of the signing of WPI’s charter. Presidents Strauss, Parrish, and Leshin held symposia focused on current themes in higher education. Grace Wang’s inauguration day will include a reception, a community event with dancing, robotics and lab tours, and a showcase for student projects and faculty research.

With a shared focus on increasing the number of women in STEM from diverse backgrounds, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) announces the recipients of the Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellowships, a prestigious award aimed at supporting women pursuing doctoral studies in science, engineering, and mathematics. The two recipients of the Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellowships for the 2024 academic year are Laura Londono Fandino, a native of Colombia and Ecuador, and Becks Lopez, hailing from San Diego, California with Mexican heritage. Fandino’s journey is one of resilience and determination and was featured in this article by the UN Refugee Agency. Having moved to Providence, Rhode Island, as a refugee under the United Nations Resettlement Program, Laura taught herself English within a year and graduated from high school with honors. She later earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from Rhode Island College and participated in WPI’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site in Clean Energy Science and Technology. Her long-term goal is to apply to NASA’s Astronaut Program. Fandino’s advisor, Lyubov Titova, professor of physics, says, “Laura is a dreamer who works hard to overcome any challenges life throws at her on her way to achieving her dream. She first came to our lab as an REU researcher, and I was impressed with her skills as an experimentalist: she just figures things out and makes them work, said Titova. She is also a wonderful team member and a leader who loves to bring people together. Her life-long goal is to work at NASA, and I hope that a PhD in physics will set her on a path to fulfilling her dreams.” Lopez, with a master’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree from Marist College, brings a wealth of experience to their role as a first-year PhD student in WPI’s Data Science program. With a diverse research background, including stints at the National Science Foundation and Argonne National Laboratory, Lopez is currently engaged in pioneering research under the mentorship of Elke Rundensteiner, focusing on utilizing physical health data to screen for mental health concerns. “Not only is Becks excelling in her academic studies right out of the gate, but she has also fully embraced the challenge of jumping into her own research and becoming an active member of my team since day one,” said Rundensteiner. “In addition, she has accepted the opportunity to help mentor a team of undergraduate students on their major qualifying project in data sciences. This is the first time in my 28 years at WPI that a newly arriving PhD student has shown the interest, and courage to help mentor a student team in their first graduate year.” Since its establishment in 1989, the Clare Boothe Luce Program has been a beacon of support for women in traditionally male-dominated fields. The Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellowship provides full tuition, stipend, health fee, and funds for professional development for two years of doctoral study, with WPI providing support after the initial two years. Recipients also benefit from close mentorship from faculty and peer mentors, fostering connectedness and academic and professional success. "WPI is deeply committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in STEM fields," said Jean King, Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences. "These fellowships not only support outstanding women like Laura and Becks in their academic pursuits but also serve as a testament to our dedication to providing a welcoming and supportive environment for women in science and engineering." WPI’s dedication to gender diversity in STEM is further evidenced by its various efforts aimed at recruitment, retention, and career development for female graduate students, including the Women’s Impact Network as well as various Innovative and Inclusion Community initiatives. For more information about WPI’s Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellowship program and its initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion in STEM, visit https://www.wpi.edu/academics/graduate/funding-opportunities/Clare-Boothe-Luce-Graduate-Fellowship.

Making history: WPI brings home two NCAA Division III National Championships in two Days. Prior to this weekend, WPI had two national championships in over 100 years of varsity athletics and in 50 years of Division III. But the Engineers captured two more in just two days at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field championship, held March 8 and 9. Grace Hadley, a graduate student from North Reading, MA, made waves at the event, setting a new school record in the mile with a time of 4:42.36 and securing a commanding win at the Virginia Beach Sports Center. Not stopping there, Hadley also clinched a new school record and claimed her third All-American citation of the meet and fourth of her career, finishing fourth in the 3,000 meters. Hadley and her teammates also took home first place in the Women’s Distance Medley Relay in one of the most exciting races of the day. The four-member squad included Hadley, Amelia Kokernak (Niskayuna, NY), Isabel Hallal (Foxboro, MA) and Elise Deshusses (Chapel Hill, NC). The Engineers were in 11th place and nearly 14 seconds behind the leader when Hadley took the baton for the anchor leg and ran a jaw-dropping 4:40.16 final 1600 for the dramatic victory. Read more about the winning weekend on the WPI Athletics website which includes information about WPI pole-vaulter Gavin Fleck (Bend, OR) who earned his first career All-America citation by clearing a school-record height of 16-4.

Ordinarily, when a member of the WPI Police Department retires, they don’t keep coming to campus several days a week. They also don’t often get the chance to help train their successor. And they never, ever play tug of war with the new hire. K-9 Bella, though, isn’t an ordinary member of the police squad. In fact, this 9-year-old black Labrador Retriever—and what she’s given the WPI community over the years—is pretty extraordinary. A certified explosive-sniffing dog, Bella works in the background before, during, and after large events to make sure the area is safe. She has been at the side of her handler, Officer Brian Lavallee, since June 2016, when WPI became the first college in Massachusetts to have an explosive detection K-9 unit. When Bella retires this spring, K-9 Jewel—who began her explosive-detection training last month—is poised to take the reins. Or leash, if you will. But Lavallee plans to continue bringing Bella to campus when he can. “I’ll still do training with her and keep her active because I don’t want Bella to fall into a depression,” Lavallee says. “She’s been working hard for almost eight years and she enjoys it. To her, the work is a game of hide and seek.” Both Bella and Jewel came to WPI via Guiding Eyes for the Blind. They spent the first year and a half of their lives in a household setting with puppy raisers who socialized them and provided basic obedience training. Dogs who are especially curious and highly motivated by food, like Bella and Jewel are, become candidates for police work instead of finishing the service dog program. Prior to 2016, WPI relied on Massachusetts State Police dogs to work at large campus events such as Commencement, move-in day, and national robotics competitions. There was no guarantee that other dogs would be available when WPI needed them, though, so Sgt. Michael Jacobs talked to university leadership about starting a K-9 unit here. Since Bella first earned her New England State Police Administrators Conference (NESPAC) certification, she and Lavallee have conducted security sweeps at more than 750 campus events and responded to about 30 suspicious package reports. “With Bella’s explosive-detection abilities, we can very quickly get a sense of whether there’s a real concern in an area,” says Chief Steve Marsh. Of course, you can’t identify every potential safety threat with a dog, Jacobs notes. “But having Bella has been the easiest way that we can help render this campus safe. What a bomb-detection canine can bring to the university is unmatched by anything else,” he says. “Plus, Bella has done a great job humanizing us and making our officers a little more approachable.” In fact, community outreach has been a central part of Bella’s duties. She and Lavallee have participated in nearly 900 small-scale campus events, including student safety talks and meet-and-greet sessions with prospective students. Over the years she has also been called dozens of times to help other law enforcement agencies with security sweeps and investigations. She and Lavallee have patrolled at large public events like the Boston Marathon and the Fourth of July celebration at Boston’s Esplanade. But the WPI campus is Bella’s happy place. Likewise, she sheds a trail of smiles wherever she goes on Boynton Hill. “This is a dog who has learned incredible detection skills and has inherent comfort skills,” says Marsh. Over the years Lavallee has enjoyed watching students get to know and appreciate Bella. “Sometimes someone comes up to me and says, ‘I’m having a bad day. Can I pet Bella?’” he says. “Or someone will sit on the floor four feet away from Bella the first time they meet her, and then the next time we meet, they’re sitting right next to Bella, leaning on her.” Don’t be fooled, though, into thinking that Bella—or Lavallee—has an easy job. They train together twice a day, every day, including weekends, holidays, and vacations. Even when Lavallee had COVID, he set up training scenarios for Bella in his basement, where he quarantined from his family. Those daily training sessions keep Bella sharp. They’re also how she receives all of her kibble. Lavallee hides small training aids containing scents that mimic different explosives, such as smokeless powder and shell casings. When Bella smells the odor, she sits to alert Lavallee that she found something. Each alert earns her several pieces of dog food. “The idea is to associate that explosive smell with the reward,” he says. “When I’m wearing the food pouch, Bella wants to work because she wants to get what’s in the pouch.” With nearly eight years of daily training sessions under her collar, plus quarterly in-service trainings with NESPAC and annual certification sessions with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Bella is very good at her job. “She’s gotten to the point where she’s really efficient,” says Jacobs. “When she passes a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall, she’ll automatically sniff it because they’ve been targeted so many times during the trainings.” Seeing the mix of youthful energy and unharnessed curiosity in the yet-to-be-trained Jewel has made Lavallee reflect on Bella’s own puppyhood and appreciate her skills even more. “I’ve seen Bella come from not knowing anything beyond some basic obedience commands to having the ability to be off leash and work a cone of odor—whether it’s windy or cold or hot or humid—and be able to find that explosive in a closet or piece of luggage or FedEx package or up in the ceiling,” he says. Bella has also earned the respect of all her colleagues in the WPI Police Department. So much respect, in fact, that before Chief Cheryl Martunas retired last year she commissioned Boston artist Leah Davies to paint a portrait of Bella, which now hangs in the entryway at the police station. WPI’s Commencement on May 10 will be Bella’s last event on active duty. "At the end of the day, just like I do now, I’ll take the leash off and release her into the backyard so she can be a regular dog," Lavallee says. "But on May 11, I don’t know what she’s going to do. I’ve never fed her out of a bowl. She might just stare at it."

Artificial intelligence has captured the world’s attention, but it’s not new to the WPI community—the school has been steeped in AI-related teaching, learning, and research for decades. A newly formed group of faculty and staff is now looking at how to invest in computing infrastructure to ensure the university stays at the forefront of AI for years to come. Part of the AI initiative at WPI, the AI Technology Task Force, led by Chief Information Officer Vijay Menta, is charged with ensuring that the school’s computing infrastructure can handle the increased demand. “We are a STEM school that has been leading in this area for many years, so it is a natural progression toward AI,” Menta said. “We want to continue to lead in this space, and serve both current and future students, researchers, and faculty members in this AI era.” The task force focuses on how infrastructure improvements will facilitate AI integration in three areas: research, teaching and learning, and administration. That might mean a virtual assistant to help staff transcribe meetings or develop reports, assistive classroom devices, or chatbots that guide prospective students through the application process. “Vijay brings the right knowledge and skills to lead this collaboration,” said WPI President Grace J. Wang Ph.D. “Working with faculty governance and in consultation with faculty and staff experts, the task force will develop a comprehensive AI technology enhancement strategy that is aligned with WPI’s academic, research, and operational goals. The task force will assess, analyze, and strategically plan for our emerging research, education, and administrative needs, with emphasis placed on security and ethical considerations.” Menta said the university currently has the capacity to meet the various demands on its technology infrastructure, but it’s important to plan for the future. For example, students applying to WPI’s new master’s in AI program will likely have additional high-powered computing needs, he said. “We’re on the cusp of a great tech inflection,” Menta said. “The Technology Task Force is basically saying ‘it’s great that we’re going to have all these tools. But how do we make them work for us, and how do we make them work together?’” As it continues its work, the Technology Task Force will examine ways to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration among WPI’s four schools, both to ensure seamless integration of AI technologies and to maximize the impact of infrastructure investments across all disciplines. Also included in the task force’s charge is a focus on security and privacy, and assisting with the establishment of guidelines and policies for ethical AI practices within the WPI community by working with other subcommittees. Menta is joined on the task force by Sia Najafi, executive director, academic and research computing group; James Kingsley, director of high performance computing and faculty support; Ermal Toto, director of scientific data, applications, and web development; and LeeAnn LeClerc, chief information security officer. Representatives from all four schools are also involved: Craig Shue, computer science professor and department head from the School of Arts and Sciences; Diane Strong, professor and department head from The Business School; Berk Sunar, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Nitin Sanket, associate professor of robotics engineering, from the School of Engineering; and Seth Tuler, associate professor from The Global School. Menta said developing training for new technology will also be a crucial component of any long-term plan and added that feedback and engagement will be welcomed as WPI plans for long-term investment in the AI space. He said that with building on the current robust training and tutoring program already in place, the university plans to introduce more courses related to AI very soon, geared toward students to assist with their coursework, and for any community members who want to learn the basics of AI. He said he expects to provide periodic updates to the university community moving forward.

WPI Commencement 2026 is a Celebration of Innovation, Leadership, and Future Impact Undergraduate Commencement speaker will.i.am urges graduates to lead with love, not with greed. Worcester, Mass.—May 15, 2026—Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) celebrated the accomplishments of the Class of 2026 during its 157th Commencement exercises, honoring graduates whose innovation, perseverance, and purpose-driven achievements will help shape the future. Ceremonies were held on May 14 and 15 at the DCU Center, where WPI awarded nearly 1,200 bachelor’s degrees, over 600 master’s degrees, and more than 60 doctoral degrees to graduates across a broad spectrum of disciplines in science, engineering, technology, business, and the humanities. Together, these graduates join a global network of WPI changemakers prepared to lead with knowledge, creativity, and impact. Undergraduate Commencement WPI President Grace Wang and Board of Trustees Chair William Fitzgerald presided over the university’s undergraduate Commencement exercises on Friday, May 15. In her address, Wang reminded graduates that their WPI education has prepared them not only with technical expertise and ethical leadership skills, but with the resilience, critical thinking, teamwork, and global responsibility needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving world. “We stand at the dawn of a new technological age,” said Wang. “There’s a good chance you will do jobs that are yet to be invented. You will work in companies that are yet to be established. You will address issues that are yet to be defined. This does not mean we should feel uncertain. This means everything can be questioned, and everything can be new. Never before has so much possibility existed to make the world better, the future brighter.” Delivering an inspiring undergraduate address was multiplatinum, Grammy Award-winning artist, tech founder, philanthropist, and STEAM education advocate will.i.am. Known globally for his groundbreaking work at the intersection of music, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, education, and through his i.am Angel Foundation, will.i.am challenged graduates to embrace creativity, innovation, and service as they forge their own paths. “How intentional are you going to be with this technology as you unearth tomorrow’s industries?” asked will.i.am “Pick a problem, solve it. That solution is an industry. This is the time for imagination, and AI is not imagining. It’s regurgitation of the human imagination. Turn that off.” As part of the undergraduate ceremony, honorary doctoral degrees were bestowed on will.i.am and Paul Covec ’64, an entrepreneur and investor who has played a formative role in advancing technologies that have shaped modern industry. This year’s undergraduate student remarks were delivered by Mena Youssif, who received a bachelor of science in civil engineering. In his speech, “We Didn’t See It Coming,” he reflected on the pace of change in the world and the unexpected growth and personal changes students experienced. Graduate Commencement At the graduate ceremony on Thursday, May 14, President Wang and Chair Fitzgerald celebrated the advanced scholarship and transformative potential of WPI’s master’s and doctoral graduates, encouraging them to apply their expertise to society’s most pressing challenges. “I feel confident because you will enter this world as our graduates. You know how to define the challenge, interact with people, and lead,” said Wang. “Every time you are working on something, remember to be curious and to push boundaries, just like you did in our classrooms and research labs.” Graduate Commencement speaker Lisa Barton ’87, president and CEO of Alliant Energy, returned to her alma mater as a distinguished industry leader whose career has helped shape the infrastructure powering modern life. An electrical engineering alumna, Barton has spent more than three decades transforming the energy sector; her career stands as a testament to the enduring value of a WPI education grounded in technical excellence and visionary leadership. “In a world increasingly shaped by technological advancements, the differentiator will not be access to information. It will be the ability to think. That is why your WPI education matters,” said Barton. “You weren’t taught what to think, you were taught how to think, and never before has that distinction been more important. Powering the future and advancing technology at scale requires this skill set.” Honorary doctoral degrees were awarded to Barton and Philip “Flip” Morgan, a fifth-generation member of the Morgan family to serve on WPI’s Board of Trustees and to have led Morgan Construction Company as president and chief executive officer. The Graduate Commencement student speaker Anjali Nair, who received a master of science in information technology, delivered a speech titled “Coming Into Your Own,” during which she spoke of “finding confidence in uncertainty, purpose in reinvention, and growth in taking chances.” Prior to the May ceremonies, honorary degrees were awarded to two philanthropic leaders and valued members of the WPI family, Patricia Messenger and Harold L. Jurist ’61. Media Contact: Colleen Bamford Wamback Director of Public Relations Worcester Polytechnic Institute 508-688-4858 [email protected] Editor’s Note:   If your outlet requires the use of will.i.am’s full legal name, it is William Adams. Other names shown on Wikipedia and previously published stories are incorrect. Please share this information with your copy editor, photo desk, and research/factchecking teams.

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have developed a solid polymer coated with harmless viruses to detect the bacteria Salmonella enterica, an advance that could lead to new ways of finding contamination in the food supply. The group, led by Yuxiang “Shawn” Liu, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, reports that the technology can rapidly capture and visualize foodborne bacterial contaminants in tiny fluid samples. With no need for incubation or complicated equipment in research centers, the technology has the potential to be used as a rapid biosensor in field applications and in areas with few resources. “We have a solid surface that can be used anywhere in the food supply chain, from farm to fridge, to detect foodborne bacteria with minimum human intervention,” Liu says. Foodborne diseases cause millions of illnesses and an estimated 420,000 deaths worldwide annually. Salmonella, a leading cause of foodborne illness, can spread through fecal matter and has been found in raw and undercooked foods, such as eggs, meat, milk, and fresh produce. The bacterium infects the intestines, causing diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. Conventional tests for foodborne bacteria typically involve lab techniques that require special equipment and training. Samples may need to be incubated to allow bacteria to grow so they can be counted, and tests at research centers can take 24 to 48 hours. Other approaches involve amplifying segments of genetic material in samples or detecting antibacterial antibodies in a sample, but those tests may not differentiate live pathogens from dead pathogens. Testing devices with antibodies also tend to have a limited shelf life at room temperature. The WPI researchers went a different route, starting with a flat, textured, and flexible polymer. They attached bacteriophages, which are viruses that develop through natural processes, to the polymer using a chemical process. Bacteriophages can identify and trap specific bacteria that are passing by. The polymer, about the size of a small fingernail, was then placed on the bottom of a channel in a palm-size microfluidic device, and the channel was sealed from the top by a piece of biocompatible plastic tape. The researchers pumped small drops of fluid containing salmonella through the channel, and the bacteriophages concentrated the bacteria on the solid polymer for detection. As a final step, the researchers used a microscope and a light technique called fluorescence imaging to examine the polymers for bright spots where bacteriophages had concentrated the bacteria. Overall, the researchers found that the phage-coated polymers inside a portable device successfully captured salmonella so the bacteria could be seen and assessed at a low concentration level that is still dangerous to human beings but challenging to detect when using existing in-field methods. The research was published in ACS Applied Bio Materials, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society. Co-authors with Liu were PhD student Seyed Hamed Ghavami; Teaching Professor Christopher R. Lambert from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; and Jessica Drozd, Class of 2026. The work was supported, in part, with funding from the Gapontsev Family Collaborative Venture Fund. Liu’s research focuses on applications that use light to interact with matter at microscopic and nano scales. Some of his work concentrates on positively impacting the quality and safety of food. In collaboration with other WPI researchers, Liu also has worked on using light to image blood clots with fiber-optic technology and a flexible endoscope that can bend in a patient’s voice box to reach and destroy tiny tumors. Liu says the salmonella detection device outlined in the paper will need more work but could be developed to detect multiple pathogens simultaneously and to detect pathogens in groundwater as well as food. Eventually, the technology might be incorporated into food packaging where it could detect contaminants by coming into direct contact with food. “To translate these findings to practical use, more work is needed on the best ways to prepare samples for testing,” Liu says. “We also want to transition from microscopes to portable readers, such as smartphones, to simplify the process of detecting bacteria. The goal is to create a technology so simple and easy to use that inspectors, retailers, consumers, and others can simply use an app to scan a package and detect pathogens.”

Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s annual Undergraduate Research Projects Showcase transformed campus into a vibrant celebration of innovation, discovery, and student achievement as seniors presented the culmination of their academic journeys through Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs). Highlighting the breadth and depth of WPI’s signature project-based education, the event brought together students, faculty, project sponsors, and the broader community to experience how undergraduate research is tackling real-world challenges with the potential to shape industries, improve lives, and change the world. From groundbreaking engineering solutions to interdisciplinary advancements, these capstone projects not only mark a defining milestone for students but often lead to peer-reviewed research, patents, startup ventures, and career-launching opportunities.  From sustainable transportation and life-saving robotics to quantum computing and accessible AI, the following projects represent just a sample of the creativity, technical excellence, and real-world impact on display at this year’s showcase.  Comparing the Stress Reduction Impact of Social Media Use with Restful Activity  Students: Abigail Henry, Casey Dowd, and Eric Zhong   Advisors: Stacy Shaw and Louis Roberts  The team studied whether deliberate self-chosen restful activities like puzzles or building with LEGOs reduced physiological stress more or less than social media use, which is a common quick coping mechanism students may use for stress relief. The study involved collecting saliva samples and conducting student surveys from 45 student participants. The study found no statistical differences in cortisol level reduction between the strategies tested. The team suggests future research use more study participants and more specific survey questions.  Q: What inspired you to take on this project?  A:  Abigail Henry: “I am super interested in social media. I use it all the time. So, I thought it would be interesting to see how we could juxtapose that with intentional rest to try to help out college students.”  Designing Green Infrastructure in Worcester  Students: Ethan Paredes and Alison Strojny  Advisors: Suzanne LePage and Stephen McCauley  The team developed a green infrastructure design plan to mitigate stormwater runoff and the heat island effect in a neighborhood in Worcester. The students suggested a design with natural solutions, including rain gardens and bioswales, to handle runoff around a school. Through mapping data analysis, site visits, and collaboration with project sponsors—the City of Worcester and Weston & Sampson, an engineering and environmental consulting firm—the team proposed solutions to address storms that drop more rain than current infrastructure can handle.  Q: How does it feel to know that you’ve got a concrete proposal that could potentially help the City of Worcester?  A:  Ethan Paredes: “We put a lot of effort into this project. It feels good to see that effort actually materialize into something that is going to make the change that we hoped it would.”   Developing a Scanning Device for Integration into Drones for Medical Emergency Rescues  Students: Ian Hagglund and Caitlin Murphy  Advisors: Guanrui Li and Giovanni Pittiglio  The students created a handheld device, which could be carried by a drone, that utilizes two types of cameras and radar to scan a body, measure a person’s vital signs, and detect signs of trauma or bleeding. The goal is to assist first responders in disaster zones by empowering them with technology to locate injured people and assess their physical condition.  Q: What motivates you or interests you in this problem? A: Ian Hagglund: “Being able to find a robot to be able to better perceive the world around it and to better perceive people so that it can help people that are in need is really important to me. And it’s also really important to be able to help people at the same time. So that’s really what motivates me.”   Analyzing Strategies to Optimize Cloud Gaming User Experience  Students: Thomas O’Leary, Jake Lariviere, and Benjamin Perry Advisors: Mark Claypool and Xiaokun Xu  The team created a computer game to be played over a network and tested network buffer policies under varying network conditions to study the impact on input delay and smoothness of game imagery. The team identified a no-buffer policy as the best option for this particular game for maintaining a user experience closest to a traditional gaming system in which games are not played over a network.  Q: What are you most proud of about this project?  A: Thomas O’Leary: “I play a lot of video games. So, being able to make a game was definitely something that I really found enjoyable. And then being able to bring in my computer science knowledge to test all these buffer policies and network delays and the effect they have on the user. It was really interesting working with a team. That feeling of having a project that you can definitely own is incomparable.”   Reducing Vibration in Baby Carriages  Students James Hoagland, Andrew Pugh, Rachel Tsang, Nikita Zuev, and Michael Collins Advisor: Joe Stabile  The team developed a suspension system for baby carriages to improve child safety and comfort during transportation and enhance the caregiver’s experience. The design relies on a combination of voice coil motors and moving magnets, with the goal of improving on current approaches to suspension for baby carriages.  Q: Where could this project go from here?  A: Rachel Tsang: “We’re hoping another group of students can build off this research. By just blending active suspension and passive suspension systems in a stroller, this is definitely a really good starting point. We have that proof of concept, and I think that future work could definitely improve it and continue to develop this.”   Implementing Artificial Intelligence Computer Vision into a Chess-Playing 3D-Printed Robot  Students: Ethan Ford, Max Williams, Aziel Habtemichael, Nicolas Graham, Nate Caughron, and Arjun Vyavaharkar  Advisors: Taylor Andrews and Pradeep Radhakrishnan  Students created an app to allow a robot to play chess. Through work on computer vision, simulation, and the device at the end of the robotic arm, the team trained and allowed for arm motion control so the robot could recognize chess pieces, pick them up, and place them as designed. The robot is also designed to be able to pick and place a variety of objects in a tabletop setting, including pill bottles.  Q: How did you benefit from working on this project as a team?  A: Max Williams: “We had a large group. In general, I think the best part of working in a group is having a bunch of different ideas and being able to rely on other groups of people to help while still being focused.”   Advancing the Development of a Sleep Health Game  Student: Trey Bowen  Advisor: Gillian Smith (Project Center: Kyoto, Japan) Bowen helped further the development of a smartwatch-based game, “Sleep Tamagotchi,” by implementing new elements and updates and conducting a user study of the game prototype that has been developed by students at Kyoto University of Advanced Science (KUAS) in Japan. The game is designed to promote better sleep health. Bowen conducted the user study while abroad at WPI’s major qualifying project center in Kyoto, Japan, and through collaboration with KUAS students.  Q: What was the most impactful part of this project for you?  A: Trey Bowen: “I think the most impactful experience for me was being able to work with people from other majors who were not as familiar with making games and to help them overcome some of the challenges as they found there’s more to the development process than they originally thought.”  Electric Conversion of a 1962 Corvair Van  Students: Trevor Bowen, Jacques Blashka, Colin Cotton, and Iain Spearance   Advisors: Lee Moradi and Hunter Zhang  The team transformed a vintage 1962 Corvair van into a fully electric vehicle using salvaged components from a 2015 Nissan Leaf. The project combined mechanical redesign, battery integration, and electrical engineering to create a replicable platform for sustainable vehicle restoration. Beyond the building itself, the team developed a detailed guidebook to help others safely convert older vehicles to electric power.  Question: What is the possible outcome of this project? “We designed it so it can be replicated. Part of our project was creating a guidebook so others can safely follow the right engineering steps and potentially convert and preserve their own older vehicles,” said Spearance.  Flarebot: Unmanned Firefighting Reconnaissance Robot   Students: Nicholas Carignan, Aidan Carter-Frem, Max Gosselin, Trajen Masner, Henry Wagg, TJ Weeden   Advisors: Mustapha Fofana, Griffin Tabor, and Jacob Whitehall  Inspired by Worcester’s 1999 Cold Storage Warehouse tragedy, students developed Flarebot, a robotic platform designed to enter burning structures before firefighters, conduct initial searches, and detect trapped occupants. Equipped with sensors and search capabilities, the system aims to improve survival rates while reducing unnecessary risks to first responders. Question:   How does this project have the potential to create meaningful real-world impact? Answer: “If we can deploy a robot immediately into dangerous fires, we can increase survival chances for victims, while also protecting firefighters from risking their lives unnecessarily,” said Wagg.  Crack the Code: Where AI Meets Cybersecurity  Students: Matthew Cloutier, Arman Gevorgyan, Cole Gilbert, Nathan Ewell  Advisor: Fatemeh Ganji  This project advanced cybersecurity defenses by integrating explainable AI into existing security systems, producing human-readable analyses of threats. The system helps analysts more efficiently identify malicious activity, including emerging zero-day attacks, while improving transparency and trust in AI-assisted security operations,” said Gevorgyan.  Question: How critical is this research needed today? Answer: “As modern computing grows more complex, explainable AI becomes essential for helping security analysts defend systems more effectively and identify threats faster,” said Gevorgyan.  Distributed Quantum Computing Research  Student: Peter Cancilla  Adivsor: Tian Guo  Supported by the National Science Foundation, this research explored how multiple smaller quantum processors can work together to achieve the computational power of larger quantum systems. The project leveraged WPI’s advanced computing resources and cloud infrastructure to address one of quantum computing’s major scalability challenges.  Question: How did the NSF funding assist this project? “NSF support was critical because it provided access to the significant computational resources needed to advance this research,” said Cancilla.  InnoSpire Glasses Companion: An AI-Driven Multilingual Assistive Mobile Application for Visually Impaired and Blind Individuals   Students: Zachary Gluck and Samruddhi Naik Advisor: Chun-Kit Ngan     Students developed software for AI-enabled smart glasses that assist blind and visually impaired users through real-time text-to-speech, object recognition, and remote volunteer support. The mobile app enhances independence by converting visual information into accessible audio guidance.  Question: What inspired your passion for pursuing this research? Answer: “Meeting visually impaired users and seeing their excitement about how this technology could directly improve their daily lives was more valuable than any technical achievement,” said Gluck.  Performance Analysis of the North American Aviation P-51 Mustang   Students: Dylan Wagner, Zachary Roethlein, Henry Wright, Grace Cink, Anastasia Siryk, Jaden Gitlow, Arjun Ramakrishnan, Caitlin Veltrup  Advisor: John Blandino    This MQP team investigated the long-debated speed record of a modified North American Aviation P-51 Mustang, a famed World War II fighter later adapted for competitive air racing. Using advanced simulation models, historical performance data, and virtual measurement tools, students analyzed whether one racer could truly have averaged more than 500 mph over an entire race. Question: What was your conclusion? Answer: “If this was on the show MythBusters, the determination would be ‘Plausible,’” said Wright. That means under specific, extreme, conditions that speed may have been achieved. Coincidentally, Wright landed a job after graduation at Fluid Power Products, where the hiring manager is a WWII buff. Medical School Collaborations:  Several MQP teams worked in UMass Chan Medical School labs this year collaborating on projects in the life sciences/biomedicine to explore  drug discovery and immunology. Those included:  Tracing the Embryonic Origins of Innate like T Cells   Kaelie Newell  Synthesis and Biochemical Evaluation of Enterovirus 68 3C Protease Inhibitors  Thi Nguyen   Structure-Based Design, Synthesis, and Biochemical Evaluation of Enterovirus D68 3C Protease Inhibitors  Julia Murphy  Robert Dempski, WPI professor of chemistry and biochemistry, served as the advisor on these projects and said, “This work not only strengthens students’ technical knowledge, but also expands their professional networks, opens doors to future research and employment opportunities, and creates a springboard for continued success in highly competitive biomedical fields. Our strong partnership with UMass Chan, right up the street from WPI, also reflects the power of collaborating with our neighbors to create meaningful educational and research opportunities that benefit students and advance innovation.”

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) today announced that Roxanne Armbruster, an accomplished human resources and organizational leadership executive with more than 25 years of cross-sector experience, will join the university as vice president of talent and chief human resources officer. Armbruster will report directly to President Grace Wang and serve as a member of the president’s Cabinet. Armbruster brings deep expertise across higher education, technology, and global professional services, with a demonstrated ability to align talent strategy with institutional priorities and drive organizational growth. Her leadership is defined by building scalable, data-informed human resources functions that enable institutions to attract, develop, and retain high-performing teams—capabilities that will support WPI’s continued momentum as a research-driven, innovation-focused university. In this role, Armbruster will lead a team of 19 and will oversee all human resources functions, including talent acquisition, total rewards, leadership development, organizational effectiveness, HR systems and analytics, and inclusive people practices, with a focus on advancing a forward-looking talent strategy that supports WPI’s academic and research enterprise. “WPI’s most critical resource is our people: our talented faculty and our professional staff who are dedicated to education, research, operation, campus life, and the future of WPI,” said Wang. “Roxanne is a leader who brings an exceptional combination of higher education experience, analytical rigor, energy, and commitment to supporting people and community. I am thrilled to have Roxanne join us and lead the critical work of our remarkable Talent and Inclusion team.” Prior to joining WPI, Armbruster served as chief of people and organizational effectiveness at Enterra Solutions, a growth-stage artificial intelligence and data analytics firm. There, she led enterprise-wide human resources and worked closely with executive leadership and the board to align talent strategy, governance, and operations with long-term business objectives, building the infrastructure needed to support rapid organizational growth. She previously served as chief human resources officer and assistant dean at Harvard Law School, where she was a key member of the senior leadership team. She led a comprehensive HR operation supporting more than 600 staff, 800 student workers, and 120 faculty within a complex shared-governance environment. During her tenure at Harvard, she advanced enterprise workforce planning, strengthened compensation and pay equity practices, and modernized HR service delivery—efforts that enhanced organizational effectiveness and positioned the institution for long-term success. Throughout her career, Armbruster has focused on building HR organizations that are strategic partners to leadership—leveraging data, strengthening operations, and aligning HR practices with institutional goals. Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership roles at Ropes & Gray LLP and the TJX Companies, and she began her career on active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard. A longtime member of the Worcester community, Armbruster brings both professional expertise and personal commitment to WPI’s mission and regional impact. She has lived in Central Massachusetts for more than two decades and has closely followed the university’s growth and contributions to the region. “WPI’s mission, culture, and future aspirations strongly align with my own values and leadership approach,” said Armbruster. “I am excited to join the university at an important moment and partner with faculty, staff, and leadership to advance a forward-looking, people-centered talent strategy that supports WPI’s continued growth and impact.” Armbruster holds a master’s degree in corporate and organizational communication from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in leadership. She has also completed advanced professional training in executive coaching, organizational consulting, assessment, and continuous improvement. Armbruster was appointed following a national search and will begin serving in her role May 18, 2026. She succeeds Lauren Turner, who is retiring from WPI after a lengthy and accomplished career in higher education human resources.

For researchers, the path to understanding aortic heart valve disease is littered with clues. Chronic high blood pressure, or hypertension, is a risk factor. So is inflammation. And then there is lipoprotein a, a sticky cholesterol-carrying particle that circulates in the blood. Kristen Billiar, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, will try to determine what turns those risk factors into disease as part of a $15 million multi-center initiative that is funded by the American Heart Association and focused on early detection and prevention of heart valve disorders. Billiar has been awarded $1,278,213 for a four-year project aimed at determining the connection between circulating liproprotein A, the biomechanical forces at work in the aortic valve, and development of calcific aortic valve disease. It's the most common heart valve disease, causing an estimated 248,256 deaths in the United States in 2019. The disease thickens, calcifies, and narrows the thin, flexible flaps of tissue that open and close in valves as blood moves through a beating heart. Billiar’s project is one of three taking place under the Center for Integrative Valve Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Cynthia St. Hilaire, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, leads the center and will lead a project with collaborators from Creighton University. A third team will be led by Satoshi Okawa, University of Pittsburgh assistant professor of medicine. Together, the three teams will focus on early detection, disease progression, and treatment of aortic stenosis, which is a narrowing of the heart valve that allows oxygen-rich blood to flow out to the body. “The project at WPI will focus on biomechanics, but we will also collaborate with researchers at other institutions who are concentrating on cell biology and using artificial intelligence to examine genetic risk factors” Billiar says. “The goal is to identify targets for potential therapies to treat heart valve disorders.” High levels of lipoprotein A, an inherited condition, seem to play a role in hardening the aortic valve. Yet not all people with high levels of liproprotein A develop valve disease, which suggests that other factors such as inflammation and abnormal mechanics may predispose valves to disease. Billiar will focus on whether disordered blood flow and stretching of valve tissue prime heart valve cells to be sensitive to circulating lipoprotein A and inflammation, leading to calcification. He and researchers in his lab will conduct experiments with valve-on-a-chip technology—human valve cells seeded onto a flexible gel that can be stretched and exposed to disturbed fluid flow. Undergraduate and graduate students at WPI will participate in the research. Undergraduates will have opportunities to work as laboratory assistants and undertake capstone projects, which all WPI students must complete to graduate. Billiar’s research focuses on the field of mechanobiology, which involves understanding how mechanical forces regulate health and disease in connective tissues. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to research how stretching and blood flow can inhibit or encourage cardiovascular cells to populate and grow in tissue-engineered heart valves. He has received American Heart Association funding to examine how cell death leads to calcium deposits that cause aortic valves to fail. “This new project builds on years of research and the development of tools that can reveal the role that mechanical forces play in disease,” Billiar said. “Bringing my work together with the work of other researchers has the potential to make great advances in our understanding of heart valve disease and lay the groundwork for new therapeutic approaches.”

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has announced its speakers for the 2026 Commencement ceremonies: will.i.am, artist, tech founder, and philanthropist, will deliver the undergraduate address, and Lisa Barton, president and CEO of Alliant Energy and a WPI electrical engineering alumna, will speak at the graduate ceremony. The graduate ceremony will be held Thursday, May 14, at 5 p.m., and the undergraduate ceremony will take place Friday, May 15, at 2 p.m., both at the DCU Center in Worcester. “Commencement is a time to celebrate the energy, creativity, and determination that define our graduates,” said Grace Wang, president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “will.i.am has energized audiences around the world by blending music, technology, and entrepreneurship in bold new ways, while also expanding access to STEAM and robotics education and opportunities through his forward-thinking philanthropic work. Lisa Barton has spent her career building and operating the infrastructure that powers modern life—from homes and hospitals to the technologies driving today’s digital economy. Together, they represent two powerful forms of innovation that reflect the spirit of WPI.” Undergraduate Commencement Speaker Multiplatinum, Grammy Award–winning artist, tech founder, and philanthropist will.i.am will address graduates at the undergraduate ceremony. An innovator at the intersection of music, technology, and innovation, he has built a global reputation as a creative force and a leader in advancing artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation. Beyond his success in music, will.i.am is a committed advocate for expanding access to education and opportunity through the i.am Angel Foundation, which he launched in 2009 to transform lives through education, inspiration, and opportunity—connecting talented individuals with the skills needed to build businesses, pursue meaningful careers, and create lasting impact in their communities. The foundation supports college scholarships, college preparation programs, and hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) and robotics education initiatives. As a creative innovator and futurist, will.i.am also engages youth, educators, policymakers, and the broader tech community to help shape more inclusive pathways into AI and innovation-driven fields. He shares WPI’s commitment to strengthening the pipeline of future innovators through early engagement in robotics and STEM education, equipping students with the critical skills needed for high-impact careers in a rapidly evolving world. Recognized for his outstanding contributions to the international engineering community, will.i.am was named an honorary fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology UK in 2017, and in 2025 he was appointed goodwill ambassador for the AI Skills Coalition, led by the United Nations International Telecommunications Union. In 2025, will.i.am was also appointed professor of practice at Arizona State University, where he is currently teaching The Agentic Self, a course he co-developed that explores the relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence. He also serves on the boards of the USC Iovine and Young Academy, College Track, and FIRST Global. In addition to delivering the undergraduate Commencement address, will.i.am will receive an honorary doctorate in humanities during the undergraduate ceremony. Graduate Commencement Speaker As president and CEO, Barton leads Alliant Energy and is positioning the company to power the next era of economic growth—modernizing the grid, expanding generation, and preparing the region as a destination for AI, hyperscale data centers, and advanced industry. Her focus is simple but ambitious: Ensure the energy infrastructure of today can power the technology breakthroughs of tomorrow. An engineer and attorney by training, Barton has spent more than three decades helping transform the energy industry—from grid operations and market design to meeting the energy demands of a rapidly digitizing economy.  Before joining Alliant Energy in 2023, Barton served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of American Electric Power, where she led the largest electric transmission network in North America and helped establish the first competitive, investor-owned electric transmission company, Transource Energy, pioneering a new model for infrastructure investment and grid modernization. She currently serves on the boards of the Commercial Metals Company, Edison Electric Institute, American Transmission Company, and the Electric Power Research Institute, helping shape national energy policy and research priorities. Barton will also receive an honorary doctorate in engineering as part of the graduate ceremony.  For a full list of 2026 Commencement activities and related information, visit https://www.wpi.edu/news/annual-events/commencement.

A routine component of many medical appointments—stepping on the scale to be weighed—may be a stigmatizing experience that raises patients’ blood pressure and potentially impacts their healthcare, according to new research from Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Angela Incollingo Rodriguez. A study of 190 college students who went through a mock healthcare visit showed that blood pressure remained elevated among those who were weighed, even if they weighed themselves. Blood pressure dropped among students who had not been weighed. The results suggest that merely being weighed might elevate stress, artificially inflating subsequent blood pressure measurements, said Incollingo Rodriguez, an associate professor of health psychology and neuroscience in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies. “An individual patient might not face lasting harm from a short-term increase in blood pressure. However, if that patient is repeatedly experiencing the stress of being weighed right before blood pressure is measured, this stress could be continually distorting an important piece of data about the patient’s health—one that is often used to diagnose health issues. And then we might see effects on the decisions a doctor makes,” Incollingo Rodriguez said. The research was published in the journal Stigma and Health and co-authored by Incollingo Rodriguez and WPI alumni Lorena Nunes and Mira Kirschner. Weight stigma is a social phenomenon that devalues and denigrates individuals based on weight. Incollingo Rodriguez has previously researched factors that drive weight stigma, how it undermines health, and, specifically, the impact of weight stigma during pregnancy on maternal health. In medical settings, clinicians or medical assistants typically weigh patients and record blood pressure at the start of a visit. Blood pressure is an especially important measurement because chronic high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, can occur without symptoms and play a role in heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. Hypertension is caused by factors such as genetics, underlying illnesses, and diet. Temporary spikes in blood pressure, however, differ from hypertension and can be caused by a number of stressful experiences. Some individuals even experience temporary high blood pressure in healthcare settings, a phenomenon known as “white coat syndrome.” Incollingo Rodriguez and her research team sought to identify whether being weighed was a specific trigger for stress and higher blood pressure. They recruited WPI students for a study that was described as an effort to examine medical appointment procedures. (Students learned about the true focus of the research after their appointments.) The researchers furnished a campus lab to resemble a healthcare setting and wore white coats when interacting with students. Students were randomly assigned to one of three groups that differed by how and when they were weighed. Over the course of appointments, students had their blood pressure measured twice. They also provided saliva samples three times so that levels of cortisol, another measure of biological stress, could be measured as well. Consistent with white coat syndrome, all students had slightly elevated blood pressure at the start of their sessions. Among students who weighed themselves or were weighed by researchers early during appointments, blood pressure remained elevated, suggesting a stress response. In contrast, blood pressure dropped among those who were not weighed until after blood pressure was measured. While the weighing experience influenced blood pressure, it did not appear to have any effect on cortisol levels. Incollingo Rodriguez said the study results raise questions about whether and when information about weight should be collected during medical appointments. The relationship between weight and health is not entirely straightforward, so it is worth considering on a case-by-case basis if a patient needs to be weighed for all medical appointments, especially if their weight is not relevant to the healthcare interaction or clinical goals, she said. “If a patient’s weight must be documented, it might be better to weigh the patient at the end of an appointment,” Incollingo Rodriguez said. “This change-up to the typical order of operations could be especially impactful in prenatal care. Perhaps pregnant patients could be reassured by the sound of their baby’s heartbeat before having blood pressure or weight measured. These results open the door to an important conversation: Maybe we can change the healthcare experience in a way that could potentially cost nothing but meaningfully reduce patient stress, promote size inclusivity, and yield more accurate physiological measurements.”

A federally funded program in the Department of Computer Science is showing that although good grades are often the most widely recognized expression of student success, well-being and belonging are part of the equation, too. The program, known as the Path to Achieving Success and Sense of Belonging in Computer Science (PASS-CS), offers financial support and enrichment opportunities to computer science majors who are eligible for federal Pell Grants. A third of the way into the program’s six-year timeline, data and anecdotes alike show strong academic achievement and personal well-being among the 20 students participating in the program so far. “Two years after this program started, there is evidence that these students are really impacted positively,” says Rodica Neamtu, professor of teaching and principal investigator (PI) of the $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. While “Pell eligible” refers most directly to financial need, Neamtu explains that these students also face other barriers to success. Notably, many are first-generation college students and often lack role models at home who are able to guide their path to, and through, college. The obstacles Pell recipients navigate tend to contribute to lower graduation rates. Nationwide, among students who started at a four-year college in 2018, approximately 49% of Pell recipients graduated within six years, compared to nearly 69% of their non-Pell peers. At WPI, while 90% of non-Pell undergraduates who started in 2018 graduated in six years, the figure dropped to just below 85% for Pell recipients. Neamtu notes that so far among the PASS-CS participants, “retention is 100% and the feedback that students are giving is that they’re thriving.” Allowing strengths to flourish Research into graduation and retention rates—coupled with an acknowledgement that, despite continued need for well-educated graduates, the computer science industry has historically been fairly homogenous and slow to embrace new viewpoints—prompted WPI faculty and staff to develop the PASS-CS program. “To make WPI’s computer science domain more welcoming and help retain students, we identified the groups who might need a little more support, a little more engagement into the life of the department,” Neamtu says. Data shows that Pell-eligible students are among those who could use support. In recent years, 76% of students who enter WPI as first-year computer science majors with a Pell award remain at WPI in their fourth year. That figure is 86% among non-Pell computer science majors—and 89% among undergrads in all majors across the university. “The question was never about Pell students’ ability. It was about whether we were creating an environment where those strengths could actually show up and flourish,” notes Debra Boucher, assistant dean of undergraduate studies and co-PI on the grant. “At WPI, where the pace is fast and the work is highly collaborative, we wanted to make sure students with those strengths had structured ways to connect, contribute, and see themselves as part of the CS community—because that community is richer when they’re fully in it.” Since 2024, all incoming first-year students who plan to major in computer science and are eligible for Pell awards have been invited to apply to the PASS-CS program. Ten applicants were selected from each of the two most recent incoming first-year classes, based on who would be most likely to engage with the program and use the extra support. Although the grant’s final cohort will be chosen from this fall’s incoming class, Neamtu and her co-P.I.s are considering how to extend the program’s benefits by generalizing some aspects to all computer science students. Each PASS-CS grant participant receives a $15,000 annual scholarship for four years. New cohort members also attend a three-day summer program that’s part academic review—helping students feel ready to start college-level math and computer science courses—and part community building—helping students develop connections with their peers in the program and with participating math and computer science faculty. During the school year those faculty members host informal weekly drop-in sessions and workshops on topics ranging from summer research opportunities and résumé writing to tips for working on teams. Everything covered in the sessions is public information and available to all WPI students. But, notes Emma Normand ’28, “you can’t look for information if you just don’t know what exists.” In that way, she says, PASS-CS is “basically giving us the best possible chance to succeed.” In fact, the grant’s leadership team regularly adjusts the program offerings based on participants’ feedback. “Every term I ask the students, ‘What are things that we can do to improve?’” says co-PI Crystal Brown, assistant professor in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies. “Our first cohort of students told us early on they needed more support in math, so we provided wraparound support in that area. Now, as they move up in their major, they’re requesting more support in their computer science courses, and we’re working to hire juniors or seniors who can be available as tutors for them.” Developing confidence and connections Normand, now a sophomore, serves as a “near-peer mentor” to the first-year PASS-CS cohort, an experience that’s helping to boost her confidence and refine her career goals. “I’m helping the newer students with computer science, of course, but if they’re having trouble on campus and they need advice, I love being able to tell them, ‘This is the secret. This is how you need to do it,’” she says. “I also realized that even though I don’t want to be a teacher, I do really like helping people, and I’m definitely more open to jobs in that area.” Seeking help from student mentors like Normand has been easy for first-year student Aaryana Gant ’29, who has also enjoyed getting to know the professors in the PASS-CS program. “I know there’s always someone I can go to for help,” she says. Thanks to the coursework Gant did at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational High School, she came to WPI with a solid computer science foundation. Still, she adds, “sometimes I know what we should be doing but don’t understand how or why, so I go and talk to the professor and they break it down for me.” Having students develop rapport with faculty is a goal of the program, says Boucher. “Students are consistently recognized as emerging professionals—not students who need fixing, but people with ideas and perspectives worth engaging. That framing matters,” she adds. “Students know that their experience and voice count with each other and with the faculty and staff that make up the PASS-CS team.” That kind of personal and professional growth is hard to quantify because it’s “not directly measurable. But even hearing somebody say ‘I see myself as a computer scientist’ or ‘I see myself graduating’ shows they feel supported,” says Neamtu. “When students can say they feel that they belong, they can also feel that they are going to succeed.” Several faculty members from across the university are actively engaged with the PASS-CS grant through program design and implementation, student advising, and more: from the Department of Computer Science, Matthew Ahrens (assistant teaching professor), Lane Harrison (associate professor), and Erin Solovey (associate professor); and from the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Francesca Bernardi (assistant professor) and Keenan Kidwell (assistant professor of teaching). Nicole Asbridge in the Office of Undergraduate Studies provides administrative support.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has appointed Raul Fonts as vice president for enrollment management, a strategic, data-driven leader with a record of innovation, collaboration, and success in building strong student pipelines. Fonts will join WPI July 1, 2026. In this role, Fonts will oversee undergraduate admissions, financial aid, enrollment strategy, and pre-collegiate outreach programs helping to advance WPI’s mission as a global leader in project-based, experiential STEM education. Fonts joins WPI following more than 25 years at Providence College, where he assumed roles of increasing scope and responsibility, most recently serving as senior associate vice president for enrollment management and chief enrollment officer. He led a team of 36 professionals across admissions and financial aid and achieved record enrollment outcomes, including a 20% increase in applications and enrollments over five years while maintaining the academic quality of admitted students. “As the higher education landscape continues to evolve, institutions must rethink how they engage and support prospective students,” said Fonts. “Today’s students are looking for more than information—they want authentic connection, clear value, and a strong sense of community from their very first interaction. That’s what makes this opportunity at WPI so exciting, and I look forward to building on the university’s distinctive, project-based approach to create meaningful connections with students from the start.” “Enrollment strategy is central to WPI’s continued momentum as a leading institution across engineering, arts and sciences, business, and technology that educates tomorrow’s leaders,” said Andrew Sears, senior vice president of academic affairs and provost. “Raul brings a thoughtful, analytical approach and a strong track record of aligning enrollment with academic priorities and institutional goals that will strengthen our ability to attract students eager to engage in WPI’s distinctive, project-based education.” Throughout his career, Fonts has emphasized the use of analytics and technology to inform enrollment decisions to better understand and support prospective students. He has also led major strategic initiatives, including the successful launch of recruitment and enrollment for a new School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Providence College. At WPI, Fonts will partner closely with academic leadership, marketing and communications, student affairs, and advancement to align enrollment strategy with the university’s strategic priorities, including its designation as an R1 research institution and continued emphasis on global engagement and experiential learning. “WPI offers students a truly distinctive, immersive education that prepares them to be thoughtful leaders across a wide range of disciplines,” Fonts said. “I am excited to collaborate with colleagues across the university to attract and support students who are ready to tackle complex, real-world challenges and make a meaningful impact.” Fonts will succeed Philip Clay, who is currently serving as senior vice president for student affairs and enrollment management. Clay is retiring at the end of this academic year after more than 33 years at WPI.

WPI researchers have developed a flexible optical fiber that can be threaded through a medical endoscope and steered into the larynx to destroy hard-to-reach tumors on the vocal folds, an advance that could expand outpatient laser treatment options for patients whose only other choice might be surgery under general anesthesia. The researchers reported that during tests with a 3D-printed replica of a human larynx, they were able to reach about 81% of 70 targets that otherwise would be impossible to reach during outpatient treatments. “Some people, such as patients with cardiac conditions, may not be able to undergo general anesthesia and conventional laser surgery for growths in the larynx,” says Loris Fichera, associate professor in the Department of Robotics Engineering and leader of the research team that developed the new optical fiber technology. “An improved medical device could address that problem by giving some patients an option to undergo laser treatment while under mild sedation in medical offices instead.” The researchers’ device is a flexible optical fiber threaded through a thin-walled nickel-titanium sheath that is 1.6 millimeters in diameter and notched so it can bend. The sheath is thin enough to fit into an endoscope, a tube-like device with a light and camera on the tip. Surgeons insert endoscopes into the body to examine tissues, organs, and structures. Once inside an endoscope, the sheath and optical fiber can be steered with hand-held controls to a site in the voice box, tissues that are also known as vocal cords, to destroy growths with pulses of light. Laser surgery of the vocal folds is typically done to remove tiny benign or precancerous growths such as callus-like nodules and polyps that can leave patients with raspy voices. For professional singers and speakers, the condition can threaten livelihoods. Allergies, underlying illness, smoking, and overuse or misuse of the voice can play a role in the development of growths. Most procedures are performed in a doctor’s office and typically involve snaking an endoscope through the nostril of a patient whose vocal folds have been numbed with a cooling spray. Patients whose growths are harder to reach can be treated in a hospital under general anesthesia. To test their design, the researchers used 3D printing to build an anatomically correct model of a real human larynx. They plotted 70 points on the model that could not be reached with non-steerable optical fibers, then used their steerable tool to reach 57, or about 81%, of the targets. Although research results suggest the device created by Fichera’s team could expand office-based procedures for laser surgery of the larynx, Fichera says that more research and development of the device is needed. The rigid 3D-printed model could not replicate the movements that occur when a patient is being treated, and the device currently requires two operators working together. Improvements might make it possible for one operator to use the device. “Much of the fundamental research has been completed,” Fichera says. “We are planning a follow-on project to make improvements that would allow the optical fiber to bend in different directions and curve to reach more places. Ultimately, our goal is to help as many patients as possible by expanding options for office procedures.” The research was published in the American Society of Medical Engineers’ Journal of Medical Devices. In addition to Fichera, co-authors were Alex Chiluisa, Kang Zhang; Yao Shen, Lucas Burstein; Yuxiang Liu, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering; and Thomas Carroll, associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School. Fichera’s research focuses on using robotics and computer science to advance technologies used in medicine, especially surgery. He received a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to develop technology for a new class of surgical robots that can treat disease without cutting or touching human tissues. He also is part of a team at WPI that is developing technology for flexible robotic arms that can grasp, lift, and carry objects. He is a co-inventor on a patent protecting the flexible and articulating surgical laser probe for laryngeal surgery.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute has awarded promotions and/or tenure to 37 full-time faculty members in recognition of their exemplary teaching, research, and service, effective July 1, 2026. “These promotions, as well as the awarding of tenure, recognize members of the WPI faculty for the outstanding contributions they have made through their teaching, advising, research, and scholarship,” says Andrew Sears, WPI provost. “They are excellent teachers, internationally recognized scholars, and respected representatives of our community. I am delighted to congratulate them.” Joseph Aguilar was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of teaching in the Department of Humanities and Arts. Francesca Bernardi was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Jun Dai, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded tenure. Lindsay Davis was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of teaching in the Department of Humanities and Arts. Corey Dehner, an associate professor of teaching in The Global School, was awarded tenure. Mohammed El Hamzaoui was promoted to senior instructor in the Department of Humanities and Arts. Katherine Foo was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of teaching in The Global School. Fatemeh Ganji was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Rudra Kafle, an associate professor of teaching in the Department of Physics, was awarded tenure. Kyumin Lee was promoted to professor in the Department of Computer Science. Shichao Liu was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering. Xiaozhong Liu was promoted to professor in the Department of Computer Science. Ingrid Matos-Nin, a professor of teaching in the Department of Humanities and Arts, was awarded tenure. Stephen McCauley, an associate professor of teaching in The Global School, was awarded tenure. Rebecca Moody was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of teaching in the Department of Humanities and Arts. Randy Paffenroth was promoted to professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Guanying Peng was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Barry Posterro was promoted to teaching professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Adam Powell was promoted to professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. Pratap Rao was promoted to professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. Dina Rassias was promoted to associate teaching professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Daniel Reichman was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Computer Science. Adam Sales was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Gillian Smith was promoted to professor in the Department of Computer Science. Gbetonmasse Somasse, an associate professor of teaching in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies, was awarded tenure. Qingshuo Song was promoted to professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Alex Sphar was promoted to associate teaching professor in The Global School. Jagan Srinivasan was promoted to professor in the Department of Biology and Biotechnology. Izabela Stroe, an associate professor of teaching in the Department of Physics, was awarded tenure. Xiaoyan (Sherry) Sun, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded tenure. Shubbhi Taneja was promoted to associate teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science. Bo Tang, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was awarded tenure. Geoffrey Tompsett was promoted to associate teaching professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. James Urban was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering. Qi Wen was promoted to professor in the Department of Physics. Zhongqiang Zhang was promoted to professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Yihao Zheng was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

A team led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Nitin J. Sanket has shown that ultrasound sensors and a form of artificial intelligence can enable palm-sized aerial robots to navigate with limited power and computation through fog, smoke, and other challenging conditions during search-and-rescue operations. The advance, inspired by bats and published in the journal Science Robotics, suggests that ultrasound may be an alternative to existing navigation technologies that add weight and cost to a drone or falter in poor conditions. “Bats that weigh less than two paper clips can accurately navigate in dark, damp, and dusty caves by sending out short chirps and listening to the weak echoes with a limited number of neurons,” said Sanket, assistant professor in the Department of Robotics Engineering. “By creating an ultrasound-based system that needs just two tiny sensors and little computation, we can open up opportunities for small aerial robots to perceive their surroundings, make decisions, and independently operate longer in cluttered, hazardous places where current aerial robots struggle.” Sanket’s research focuses on robotics inspired by nature, such as bees and bats. The work featured in Science Robotics was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Autonomous aerial robots typically use sensors, controllers, cameras, a power source, and sophisticated algorithms to perceive their surroundings and make navigational decisions. Some robots collect information about a landscape by analyzing radio waves or light pulses. However, technology based on lidar—light detection and ranging—and radar are heavy, power intensive, and costly. Darkness, poor weather, and noise can interfere with light-based perception systems. Sound from propellers adds complexity to an aerial robot’s calculations that aim to decipher useful echoes from propeller noise. Analyzing data requires a robot’s time and energy. The research team led by Sanket customized an X-shaped aerial quadrotor drone about 6 inches wide with ultrasound sensors and a physical barrier called an acoustic shield to dampen propellor noise. They also used an AI technique known as deep learning to train the robot’s computer to analyze weak ultrasound echo patterns similar to the way a bat brain processes sound to decipher echoes. They tested the robot, weighing about 1 pound, outdoors in a wooded area and indoors in a laboratory furnished with obstacles such as transparent plastic or metal poles. Some indoor tests took place in darkness with black obstacles, while others took place as the researchers blew fog or snow onto the obstacle course. The drone had enough battery power to operate for about five minutes per flight while navigating the course autonomously. The researchers reported that the robot had a success rate of 72% to 100% in navigating through challenging courses during 180 tests. The robot was less successful at dodging thin objects, such as metal poles, and it struggled to avoid slender tree branches, which weakly reflected signals. Co-authors with Sanket on the research were W.P.I. alumni and students Manoj Velmurugan, Phillip Brush, and Colin Balfour: and Richard Przybyla of TDK InvenSense, Berkeley, Calif. The next step for bat-inspired drones may be to use smaller, lighter devices that could fly longer using the team’s low-power ultrasound-based system, Sanket said. Future work could also improve flight speeds. “In a real search-and-rescue mission, a few more seconds of flight time could mean the difference between life and death for a survivor,” Sanket said.

On an overcast afternoon in February, a biting wind swirled around the Quad as four undergrads sat in a semicircle in the Innovation Studio. They were engaged—taking notes and asking questions of the graduate students who stood nearby—but their focus was nearly 3,500 miles away in Cádiz, Spain, on the sunny southwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. That’s where the team of four would be headed at the start of D-Term to complete their Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP)—after spending some time this day at WPI’s Global Lab, getting an introduction to the virtual reality technology that their project depended on. Since the IQP became a signature part of the WPI undergraduate curriculum in 1970, students have drawn on technology to find solutions to real-world problems. But new technologies are emerging faster and faster these days—sometimes so fast that students haven’t ever used the kind of tech needed to complete the projects that IQP sponsors seek. WPI turns those challenges into learning opportunities for students and backs them up with support systems and resources. One such resource, the Global Lab, has long-provided the campus community with hands-on training and troubleshooting for audio, video, and photography equipment. More recently the lab also began offering assistance with technologies that power extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, helping to fulfill WPI’s promise to equip students to be tech innovators of tomorrow. “In applying these emerging technologies around the world in different contexts, our students really see the complications and complexities, which helps them develop expertise and an informed critical view,” said Stephen McCauley, director of the Global Lab. Chatbot challenge About 20% of IQP teams got some technical training at the Global Lab in the 2024–25 academic year. And while only six of those 52 trainings focused on XR technologies, the proportion of teams seeking similar help has shot up this year: Since A-Term, 11 of the 37 trainings the Global Lab has offered related to either augmented or virtual reality. Fewer teams seek AI-related training from the Global Lab, but that isn’t a reflection of how many projects incorporate artificial intelligence in some way. Students are likely to already be familiar with AI tools that can help them organize information or strengthen their projects in the background. It’s still relatively rare, however, for IQP teams to develop an AI-based project deliverable because the resources required—in time and logistics—often far exceed what they can do in seven weeks. Rare, but not unheard of. When Allyson Sterling ’27 and her IQP teammates learned last fall that their project sponsor in Hangzhou, China, wanted them to build a prototype chatbot, they were excited by the challenge and turned to the Global Lab. “None of us really had a strong basis for how we were going to approach making a chatbot,” said Sterling. On her team of three, she was the only computer science major and the only person with any, albeit minimal, experience training a chatbot. But building a chatbot from scratch? That was totally new. “I had no idea where to look for large language models or how to interact with existing pre-trained LLMs.” Shikshya Shiwakoti, M.S. ’26, one of the Global Lab’s two AI specialists, pointed the team to existing resources with examples similar to what they wanted their chatbot to do. Their project sponsor runs an app that helps students learning English as a second language prepare for official placement tests. By explaining why an answer is incorrect and showing users where relevant information is located in their accompanying text, the chatbot Sterling’s team envisioned would add value beyond basic test prep programs that give simple answers only. What Shiwakoti shared was “a really good resource for that starting place,” Sterling said. It allowed her to develop a rough prototype, which the team was able to present to their sponsor at the end of their seven weeks in Hangzhou. Sterling is quick to point out the prototype’s glitches but feels it provided the project sponsor with proof of concept. And that wouldn’t have been possible without guidance from the Global Lab staff. Virtual learning experience Initial recommendations from Global Lab staff also helped accelerate the work of a team that went to Cádiz in D-Term 2025, allowing students to develop a virtual reality (VR) simulation prototype to be used as a rehabilitation tool for people with acquired brain injury. “It was a learning experience since none of us really knew anything about VR,” said team member Rowan Faulkner ’26. “The Global Lab staff showed us different ways you can interact with things in VR using controllers versus using your hands, and that helped us make some decisions in our project.” With Global Lab guidance the team also chose to develop their simulator using a platform that has many components built in. “We could have done it all ourselves from scratch and had a lot more control, but that’s a lot slower,” said Faulkner, who was one of two computer science majors on his team. “The pre-built pack had some limitations, but it definitely made it easier to get more of the project done.” In Cádiz they got right to work. Not only did they have enough time to test parts of their simulation with some of their project sponsor’s patients, they were also able to revise and upgrade aspects before submitting the final prototype, which they called the Comeback Kitchen. The team was recently selected as one of two winners of the President’s IQP Awards. Their prototype served as the foundation on which this year’s Cádiz VR team will build. Jumpstarting confidence Back in the Global Lab, that team got their technological bearings—and a bit of a pep talk—from Varun Bhat, M.S. ’20, PhD ’27, the lab manager. “It might be helpful to have a database team and a technical team,” Bhat told them, suggesting specific tasks that everyone on the team could get started on. Of the role that he and other Global Lab staff play when working with student teams, Bhat noted, “We don’t change any parameter or aspect in the project. We just show different tips and techniques to essentially jumpstart them.” That also has the effect of empowering students, he said. “We help them see what they can realistically achieve—and that makes the students feel more confident and in control of their project.” Heading into the IQP—which inevitably raises roadblocks that teams can’t anticipate—buoyed by confidence is vital. It not only helps students think clearly as they troubleshoot over the next seven weeks; ideally it also instills in students lasting resilience, a crucial characteristic for tomorrow’s tech leaders. “These new technologies are transformative, but they’re also incredibly disruptive, and the social implications of that are very real,” McCauley said. “The way we communicate is rapidly changing in really fundamental ways, and who knows what things are going to look like 10 years or even five years from now? It’s important for our students to be conversant, or fluent, in multiple ways of communicating.” Sterling’s IQP teammates were Kai Collins ’27 and Grace Ho ’27. Faulkner’s IQP teammates were Ryan Hunter ’25, Saahithi Kura ’26, and Sarah Oliveira ’26.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has announced two new bachelor’s degree programs—the bachelor of science in marketing analytics and the bachelor of science in business analytics and applied AI—designed to equip students with the data-driven and AI-enabled decision-making skills increasingly sought across today’s competitive business landscape. These programs reflect WPI’s commitment to preparing graduates to lead in a world where analytics, automation, and digital strategy are redefining organizational success. “Business sectors across the economy are experiencing rapid transformation driven by data, analytics, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence,” said WPI President Grace Wang. “These new degree programs exemplify WPI’s commitment to preparing our students for the future of work by equipping them with leading-edge business skills and fostering innovative, ethical, and analytical thinking.” Demand for analytical and AI-savvy business professionals continues to surge. According to national employment projections, roles in market research, business analytics, and AI-supported strategic planning are among the fastest growing sectors, with organizations increasingly prioritizing workforce skills in data literacy, quantitative reasoning, and emerging technologies. From personalized marketing and customer analytics to AI-informed operations and predictive modeling, the need for graduates who can translate data into actionable insights is expanding across industries including retail, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and technology. WPI’s two new undergraduate programs were developed in close collaboration with industry partners, faculty experts, and employers who emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary preparation that blends business foundations with analytics, computation, and communication. The BS in marketing analytics focuses on teaching students how to leverage data to understand consumer behavior, optimize campaigns, measure brand performance, and guide strategic marketing decisions. The curriculum blends marketing fundamentals with statistical analysis, data visualization, and digital strategy, supported by hands-on projects that allow students to work directly with organizations on real marketing challenges. The BS in business analytics and applied AI prepares students to apply artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics to solve complex operational and strategic business problems. Students gain experience with predictive modeling, data engineering, algorithmic decision-making, and AI-supported business solutions while also exploring issues of ethics, transparency, and responsible AI deployment. “These programs were intentionally designed to meet the evolving needs of modern organizations,” said Kwame Dunbar, interim dean of The Business School. “Students will not only learn technical skills—they will develop the critical thinking, teamwork, and ethical grounding needed to apply analytics and AI responsibly in real business contexts. These degrees reflect what employers are asking for and what the future of business demands.” Both degree programs are STEM designated—certifying that they qualify international students for extended U.S. work authorization through optional practical training (OPT)—and accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the global standard for international business education. Through WPI’s project-based learning model, students in both programs will collaborate with industry sponsors to address authentic, high-impact business problems, gaining professional experience before graduation. To learn more about these new undergraduate degree programs, visit: Marketing analytics: https://www.wpi.edu/academics/study/bachelors-degree-marketing-analytics Business analytics and applied AI: https://www.wpi.edu/academics/study/bachelors-degree-business-analytics-applied-ai

A newly unified support system and online community for WPI entrepreneurs is aiming to connect student and faculty inventors to outside advisors who can help turn discoveries into commercial success stories. ACIS—which stands for Advising, Connecting, Innovating, and Supporting—brings together WPI offices that support entrepreneurism among students and faculty members. The initiative also revives the university’s use of StartupTree, an online platform that makes it possible for WPI inventors to connect with alumni, mentors, and potential industry partners. “WPI has a history of supporting entrepreneurs and innovators through multiple offices and programs, and ACIS brings all of that support together under one banner,” says Terry Adams, director of the Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “ACIS is not a new program,” says Ardian Preci, director of innovation and entrepreneurship programs for The Business School. “It’s marshalling WPI’s existing resources to help entrepreneurs, whether they are faculty members or students, launch their business ideas.” Innovation and entrepreneurship at WPI flows from the university’s standing as an R1 institution and a leading science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) university with an emphasis on solving real-world problems. Undergraduates conduct independent research, often in interdisciplinary teams, as a requirement for graduation. Students also have access to entrepreneurial education through The Business School, which bridges business and technology to prepare future leaders of the tech economy. Faculty-led startups emerge from multiyear research projects supported by corporate, state, federal, and philanthropic funders. During the academic year that ended June 30, 2025, WPI expenditures on research totaled $79.2 million, including university seed grants awarded to faculty members. Student and faculty ideas have led to diverse startups focused on everything from recycling to artificial intelligence (AI). Ascend Elements, a lithium-ion battery materials company, traces its roots to a startup co-founded in 2015 by Yan Wang, the William B. Smith Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Cyvl, a data company powered by artificial intelligence, was founded in 2021 to map public infrastructure after Daniel Pelaez ’20 discovered during a summer job that towns had no good digital technology to map problems such as potholes and broken signs. “Startups launched with technology that traces back to WPI currently employ more than 500 employees and have raised more than $1.7 billion in capital,” Adams says. During an event to launch ACIS in November at WPI’s Innovation Studio, representatives from the newest wave of student and faculty startups briefly pitched their ideas to WPI faculty, students, staff, alumni, and outside advisers. Student startup ideas ranged from Braille language instruction technology to online business tools for contractors. Faculty members pitched startups focused on advanced materials and energy, sustainable construction, and precision manufacturing. The next ACIS event will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 11, 2026, at the Innovation Studio. To build the ACIS network of advisors and mentors, organizers are seeking individuals with industry or startup experience, alumni interested in mentoring, experts in STEM fields, and people from the investment industry who are interested in getting an early look at startup opportunities. Those who volunteer will have a chance to give back to WPI, network, and shape new ventures. Preci says the next step for ACIS, as it builds out its network, will be to bring startup advisors and business mentors together with students and faculty members on StartupTree. “The important thing is to connect our student and faculty entrepreneurs with people outside of WPI who can provide expert feedback on ideas and connect our community to the resources that will launch innovations into the marketplace,” Preci says.

WPI Professor Dmitry Korkin and researchers in Senegal are using a unique type of artificial intelligence to develop a tool that could not only help pathologists in tropical regions diagnose skin diseases, but also show those pathologists how AI makes its decisions. The research involves explainable artificial intelligence, an approach that draws back the curtain on AI to reveal the processes of machine-learning algorithms. The researchers say their tool can analyze skin specimen images to identify pathogens that cause mycetoma, a disease often found in rural parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America where medical and technical resources may be limited. “AI can feel like a black box holding something that is very difficult to comprehend,” says Korkin, the Harold L. Jurist ’61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean’s Professor of Computer Science. “With explainable AI, we can build a tool that will help diagnose skin diseases and provide down-to-earth explanations about the entire decision-making process.” Known as SINDI, for Skin INfectious Diseases Intelligent framework, the tool evolved from the work of Kpetchehoue Merveille Santi Zinsou, a PhD student who arrived at WPI in 2024 for a year in Korkin’s lab under the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology. Since leaving WPI, Zinsou has continued to work on SINDI within the Institute of Research for Development at UMMISCO, a research organization in Dakar, Senegal. Mycetoma causes tumor-like lesions, often on the feet, where breaks in the skin and exposure to contaminated soil or water can provide a pathway for invading pathogens. Farmers, laborers, and people who walk barefoot are especially prone to mycetoma. If not treated, mycetoma can invade deep tissues, cause deformities, and impair the body’s ability to function. Antibiotics or antifungal medications can be used to treat mycetoma, depending on the cause of the infection, but determining the cause is not always easy. Pathologists typically examine tissues and cells under a microscope to identify abnormal structures called “grains” that aid in diagnosis. Sometimes, however, grains are not visible in specimens and additional costly, time-consuming tests are needed “For patients, any delay in diagnosing the cause of mycetoma can delay proper treatment,” Zinsou says. “Tools that speed up diagnosis can help patients get the help they need so they can recover quickly.” To develop SINDI, the researchers started with a dataset of 7,000 healthy tissue images and 1,324 labeled images of tissue infected by fungal and bacterial pathogens known to often cause mycetoma. Then the researchers developed mathematical algorithms to examine the dataset images. The researchers found that the tools learned to successfully identify infected tissues and pinpoint pathogens, even when no grains were visible. “We think that the tool can find complex patterns and details, even beyond the lesion areas, that are too tiny for a human expert to detect,” Korkin says. The next step was to configure SINDI to show clinicians multiple images that would explain how the tool had identified the disease and the pathogen responsible for a patient’s lesions. The research team published their SINDI research on the biology preprint server BioRXiv. In addition to Zinsou and Korkin, authors were Habone Ahmed Mahamoud, Abdou Magib Gaye, and Maodo Ndiaye, all of Cheikh Anta Diop University and National University Hospital of Fann in Senegal; Idy Diop of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal; and Doudou Sow and Cheikh Talibouya Diop, both of the University of Gaston Berger in Senegal. Zinsou says researchers in Senegal are working with pathologists to begin testing SINDI. After collecting feedback from users, the researchers plan to refine the tool, seek approval from Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Social Action, and deploy SINDI in hospitals. “We want to ensure that the tool, which users can access through a computer interface or through a mobile app in the near future, is streamlined as much as possible so it can be easily used by doctors in rural clinics to help patients who need treatment,” Zinsou says.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has received multimillion-dollar gifts from two alumni totaling $13 million, representing significant financial commitments that will be dedicated to student scholarships. The donors, who wish to remain anonymous, credit the college with shaping their careers, broadening their worldviews, and instilling in them a lifelong commitment to learning and service. Their gifts are meant to extend such life-changing opportunities to future students. “These extraordinary commitments reflect the enduring bond our alumni feel with WPI and their belief in the power of a WPI education to transform lives,” said WPI President Grace Wang. “By investing in scholarships, they are creating a legacy that provides for the future, opening doors for talented students and ensuring that a WPI education remains accessible for generations to come.” Both gifts—one from an alumnus and his wife, and another from an alumna and her husband—will reduce financial barriers and expand access for deserving students in need. Committed as bequests, the funds are structured as long-term financial commitments, providing sustained support over time. One donor couple shared that their decision to give back was deeply personal. They credited WPI with providing support and opportunities that changed the trajectory of their lives and now want to pay that forward by helping other students. The second couple, emphasizing the ripple effect of investing in students, said they “hope to ensure that future students have the access and support they need—and that they, in turn, can give back in their own meaningful ways.” Along with a $3 million gift from Paul Covec ’64 to stimulate growth in student and faculty startups, these gifts represent major investments in the future success of WPI and its students and support Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The most ambitious fundraising campaign in WPI’s history, the initiative positions the university to continue to transform lives, to turn knowledge into action to confront global challenges, and to revolutionize STEM through its distinctive and inclusive education, projects, and research. The campaign’s theme honors the towers of WPI’s first two buildings and enduring symbols of its guiding philosophy of theory and practice. Through the campaign, alumni and friends have supported undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and world-changing research, global programs, facilities, and a thriving campus community. To support Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute, visit wpi.edu/+give.

At an event at Worcester City Hall, the City of Worcester and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) today formally signed an agreement to launch the Academic Civic Collaborative, a new framework designed to strengthen coordination between the municipality and the university around community-centered, Worcester-based academic projects. Announced at the same event, the City of Worcester, WPI, and the Central Massachusetts Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIACM) also introduced the Design and Community Partnership, a separate design-focused partnership aligned with—and advancing the goals of—the broader Collaborative. “This Academic Civic Collaborative reflects Worcester’s commitment to leveraging local talent, creativity, and academic excellence to benefit our neighborhoods and communities,” said Worcester City Manager Eric D. Batista. “By working hand-in-hand with WPI and project partners, we are developing thoughtful, inclusive design solutions that directly respond to the needs of our residents. The Collaborative will benefit both Worcester students and residents for years to come and is exactly the kind of civic collaboration that moves a city forward.” “Projects like these are possible because of the strong public-private collaborations Worcester has with partners like WPI and AIACM,” said Mayor Joseph Petty. “The Academic Civic Collaborative and the Design & Community Partnership will help the city plan and build for the future.” The Academic Civic Collaborative builds on more than two decades of WPI projects in Worcester—including hundreds of initiatives completed through the Worcester Community Project Center—and provides a consistent structure for municipally-identified student projects to be advanced annually, reinforcing Worcester’s role as a key partner within WPI’s project-based learning model. “WPI’s mission has always been rooted in harnessing science, engineering, and design to serve the public good,” said WPI President Grace J. Wang. “The Academic Civic Collaborative deepens our engagement with the City of Worcester and strengthens our commitment to community-driven project work. The Design and Community Partnership is a powerful early example of how this work will create new opportunities for our architectural engineering students and meaningfully contribute to the city we proudly call home.” Through the Design and Community Partnership, the municipality, WPI, and AIACM will advance community-centered design efforts across Worcester, including small-scale civic structures, adaptive reuse concepts, housing prototypes, public space enhancements, and sustainability initiatives. These projects connect students and faculty with architects, engineers, trade professionals, residents, and municipal leaders to pair educational value with civic impact. “Architects have a responsibility to serve the greater good, and this partnership creates an extraordinary platform for design to make a measurable difference in people’s lives,” said Sean Brennan, President of AIACM and a lifelong Worcester resident. “Together with WPI and the municipality, we are cultivating the next generation of designers and supporting the regional design community, all while advancing projects that strengthen Worcester’s civic fabric.” Building on more than a decade of successful WPI architectural engineering projects in the community—such as the Elm Park Bridge replacement and the WWI Memorial in Green Hill Park, and recent conceptual work related to resource shelters—the design partnership supports continued collaboration while expanding workforce pathways and strengthening the regional design ecosystem. “WPI has a long tradition of successful architectural engineering projects in the community,” said Steven Van Dessel, director of the Architectural Engineering Program at WPI. “Our students are eager to work on real-world challenges, and this collaboration with the City and AIACM gives them the opportunity to apply their engineering and design expertise where it matters most—right here in Worcester.” Under this coordinated effort, the City of Worcester will identify priority projects, coordinate across municipal departments, facilitate community engagement, and ensure that design concepts align with long-term planning goals and neighborhood needs. AIACM will serve as a liaison among the municipality, WPI, and participating design professionals—providing professional expertise, convening community engagement sessions, and offering overall coordination and oversight. Additional initiatives, partnerships, and projects will be announced as future opportunities are identified and developed.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has received a $3 million gift from Paul Covec ’64 to support big ideas and bold visions from WPI faculty and students. Covec’s gift, which supports Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute fundraising initiative, establishes the Paul A. Covec ’64 Innovation and Commercialization Fund. This fund puts Covec’s values into action, leveraging his philanthropy to have an enduring and durable impact on innovation at WPI. The amphitheatre in WPI’s Innovation Studio has been named the Paul A. Covec ’64 Amphitheatre in recognition of his philanthropy and sustaining legacy at his alma mater. “Paul understands and appreciates the power of a WPI education and the impact of our research and innovation, creating value that truly matters to society,” says WPI President Grace Wang. “I am grateful for Paul’s generosity to support and accelerate the development of innovative ideas from faculty and students to reach the marketplace and make an impact.” Covec’s endowed fund will stimulate growth in promising startups and serve as a catalyst for patent research, prototyping, market research, and technology licensing that will make world-changing ideas a reality. This significant and forward-looking commitment builds on a record of success achieved by WPI’s Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship. WPI faculty and students have had more than 70 patents issued since 2016 and had 62 invention disclosures between 2024 and 2025. In the last 10 years, the university’s research has resulted in 25 startups, representing 536 employees and more than $1.7 billion in capital raised. These companies are focused on such critical areas as lithium-ion battery manufacturing and recycling, carbon-negative building materials, and AI in healthcare. “These companies and the faculty, students, and alumni behind them are addressing significant challenges facing our world,” says Bogdan Vernescu, vice president and vice provost for research and innovation at WPI. “By establishing this endowed fund, Paul Covec is providing support that will enable and sustain WPI’s commercialization pipeline long into the future. We are deeply grateful for the confidence he has shown in our faculty and students.” Covec spent years in Silicon Valley as an investor and entrepreneur. He has a deep understanding of what it takes to bring an idea to market and for a new venture to launch and endure. “Education has the power to unlock potential and open new paths to opportunity, discovery, and innovation,” says Covec. “My WPI education shaped my future, and by establishing this fund, I hope to inspire and support students and faculty as they strive to create a brighter future for our global society.” Covec founded Cypress Property Management, a private real estate company in California, over 40 years ago. The company’s portfolio includes commercial properties in the office, medical, flex, and industrial categories, as well as single- and multi-family properties in markets throughout California, Oregon, and Nevada. A full-service real estate investment and management company, its services range from investment acquisitions to strategic planning, project management, leasing, and building and maintenance services. He retired in 2000 from Microbar in Santa Clara, Calif., as vice president of foreign and domestic marketing activities and sales expansion efforts in Asia. He joined Microbar, a manufacturer and designer of chemical management systems for semiconductor fabrication processes, in 1994 as a consultant and later became vice president of business development. For more than two decades prior, he held various senior level sales and marketing positions in test and measurement systems departments in the semiconductor industry for companies including Prometrix, Control Video, and Ward Davis Associates. He also served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1964 until 1968 before pursuing his MBA at Columbia University. Beyond These Towers, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in WPI’s history, positions the university to continue to transform lives, to turn knowledge into action to confront global challenges, and to revolutionize STEM through its distinctive and inclusive education, projects, and research. The campaign’s theme honors the towers of WPI’s first two buildings and enduring symbols of its guiding philosophy of theory and practice. Through the campaign, alumni and friends have supported undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and world-changing research, global programs, facilities, and a thriving campus community. To support Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute, visit wpi.edu/+give.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (W.P.I.) Professor Yan Wang, the William B. Smith Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, has been elected a 2025 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (N.A.I.)—the highest professional distinction awarded exclusively to academic inventors. Wang is among 185 exceptional inventors selected for the 2025 class, which includes 169 U.S. Fellows and 16 international Fellows. Collectively, this year’s cohort holds more than 5,300 U.S. patents and includes Nobel laureates, National Medal recipients, and members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. A global leader in battery recycling and sustainable manufacturing, Wang is widely recognized for pioneering a hydrometallurgical process that recycles lithium-ion batteries at industrial scale. His innovations have produced 12 U.S. patents and have led directly to the creation of two companies, including the industry-leading Ascend Elements and A.M. Batteries. His work has received numerous national accolades, including the inaugural Bayh-Dole “Faces of American Innovation” award. He was also named to the N.A.I. Class of Senior Fellows in 2022. “Being elected an N.A.I. Fellow is a tremendous honor, and I am grateful for this recognition of the work my students, postdoctoral fellows, collaborators, and I have pursued over many years,” said Wang. “W.P.I. has provided an environment where fundamental research and real-world impact go hand-in-hand, enabling our technologies to move from the lab to industry and contribute to a more sustainable world.” W.P.I. President Grace Wang, a member of the N.A.I. Fellows Class of 2024, praised the recognition as a milestone not only for Professor Wang, but also for the university’s innovation ecosystem. "N.A.I. Fellowship is one of the most prestigious honors an academic inventor can receive, and we are very proud of Yan Wang for this well-deserved achievement,” said President Wang. “His groundbreaking research in battery-recycling technology and innovative entrepreneurship exemplify W.P.I.’s mission to translate purpose-driven research into real-world solutions that strengthen industries, protect our planet, and improve lives.” N.A.I. Fellows represent the pinnacle of academic innovation, spanning fields such as quantum computing, A.I., bioengineering, and climate technology. Since its founding in 2012, the Fellows program has grown to include more than 2,250 distinguished inventors whose combined innovations have generated an estimated $3.8 trillion in economic impact and 1.4 million jobs. “N.A.I. Fellows are a driving force within the innovation ecosystem, and their contributions across scientific disciplines are shaping the future of our world,” said Dr. Paul R. Sanberg, F.N.A.I., President of the National Academy of Inventors. “We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of Fellows to the Academy.” The 2025 N.A.I. Fellows will be formally inducted and presented with medals by a senior official of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the 15th Annual N.A.I. Conference, held June 4, 2026, in Los Angeles, California.

The tiny opaque tube that Yonghui Ding holds up to the light in his laboratory looks like a bit of debris from a dismantled ball point pen. Just 1 centimeter long and about 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter, the biodegradable tube is too small for the grooves and channels on its surfaces to be easily visible. Yet those microscopic textures represent an advance that Ding, an assistant professor in WPI’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, thinks may someday lead to big improvements in heart bypass surgeries. In a new paper in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, Ding and research collaborators from Northwestern University reported that they developed a rapid 3D-printing process using biodegradable “ink” and light to produce tubular implantable scaffolds with grooves and channels. The textures created pathways for cells to migrate across the implant’s surfaces and line up with each other, a critical step in regenerating blood vessels to the heart. “The goal of this research is to regenerate arteries, not just replace them,” says Ding. “To achieve that goal, it will be important to develop grafts that temporarily provide the structure for tissue growth and enable new cells to grow into healthy and functional blood vessels.” The research aims to improve surgical treatment for one of the nation’s leading public health challenges—heart disease. The leading cause of heart attacks is blockage in the vessels supplying blood to the heart. A common surgical treatment is coronary artery bypass grafting, which involves attaching a vein or synthetic tube to reroute circulation around a blockage to restore healthy blood flow to the heart. To improve grafting procedures, the researchers have focused on building better temporary grafts. Their work has revolved around a novel process of multiscale microscopic 3D printing. Using a specialized 3D printer built in the Ding Lab, the researchers deposited layers of liquid polymer onto a flat plate to carefully build a tube, layer by layer. They also used ultraviolet light to project patterns onto the tube as it took shape. The citrate-based polymer was then cured into a flexible and biodegradable material. Patterns on the tube surfaces created routes for endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells, which are found in blood vessels, to move and line up with each other on the tube surfaces. In a head-to-head comparison, the researchers found that endothelial cells migrated and lined up better on textured scaffolds than on smooth scaffolds. In addition to Ding, WPI authors on the paper were PhD student Rao Fu; postdoctoral fellow Ni Chen; research scientist Biao Si; and Zhenglun Alan Wei, assistant professor in the WPI Department of Biomedical Engineering and an adjunct faculty member at UMass Chan Medical School. Authors at Northwestern were Guillermo Ameer, professor and director of the Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering; Professor of Mechanical Engineering Cheng Sun; PhD student Evan Jones; and master’s degree student Boyuan Sun. The research reflects Ding’s focus on the design and manufacturing of biomaterial scaffolds for the regeneration of tissues, such as vascular and musculoskeletal tissues. He joined the WPI faculty in 2023 after serving as a research assistant professor at Northwestern, and his research has been funded by the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health. “I’m really excited about translational research that breaks ground scientifically but also has the potential to improve peoples’ lives,” Ding says. “Many people need bypass surgery, and our research could result in better grafts that lead to better health outcomes for patients.”

Imagine you’re on a roller coaster at 20,000 feet in the sky, or higher, and repeatedly enduring the sensation of your stomach dropping, all while overseeing a scientific experiment. That was the experience PhD candidate Regan Krizan had on Oct. 28 in Bordeaux, France. Krizan, a student in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, flew on a parabolic flight, sometimes known by the nickname “vomit comet,” to conduct a materials science experiment in zero gravity. “I always wanted to be an astronaut growing up, and this is about as close as I can get,” says Krizan. “I am very excited that I had this opportunity so early in my research career.” The parabolic flight travels up and down several times on a trajectory resembling an arch, providing 22 seconds of zero gravity at the apex, creating a critical element for scientific research that can’t be achieved on Earth. The experiment, which seeks to understand what happens when metal is melted, was conducted in an on-board electromagnetic levitator. Essentially, by sending electrical currents through copper coils to create an electromagnetic field, a metal sample can be made to levitate inside a chamber in zero gravity while the metal is heated to melt. This allowed Krizan and Gwendolyn Bracker, an assistant research professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and one of Krizan’s faculty advisors, to observe how an iron-copper alloy separates into two distinct liquids when melted, similar to how oil and water don’t mix. “We are investigating a rare case in which the fluid flow can be visually observed due to a two-phase liquid separation in the iron-copper system,” says Krizan. “Microgravity makes isolating thermophysical properties of a liquid sample possible. These conditions can only be met on the International Space Station or on a parabolic flight.” The experiment provided Krizan and Bracker with high-speed video and temperature data that will help the researchers better understand fluid flow. The pair hopes their study will lead to improved fluid flow models that can simulate how liquids flow and solidify. “The experiments on the parabolic flight are integral to validating fluid flow models to aid in data analysis for electromagnetic levitation and applying the results to the manufacturing industry,” added Krizan. For example, the models can allow for reduced trial and error and improved efficiency in making molds for casting. “Understanding how metallic melts behave is critical for manufacturing, casting, and additive manufacturing,” says Bracker, who traveled with Krizan to France and watched from the ground as her advisee and the experiment were on the flight. “Many metallurgical processes originated in historical processing and require a greater understanding of the fundamentals to improve. By building better models we can support the development of more efficient processing and production.” Krizan and Bracker’s research, in conjunction with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), was one of more than a dozen experiments on board the parabolic flight, which the European Space Agency makes available to scientific researchers. Krizan is co-advised by Bracker and Robert Hyers, the George I. Alden Chair of Engineering and head of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. In addition to the feeling of weightlessness, Krizan and others on board experienced hypergravity during the climb and descent. “I wasn’t that scared about how the flight would affect me going into it,” adds Krizan. “I handled the physical challenge well, and it was a great experience that is so meaningful to my research.”

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers have created a new carbon-negative building material that could transform sustainable construction. The breakthrough, published in the high-impact journal Matter, details the development of enzymatic structural material (ESM), a strong, durable, and recyclable construction material produced through a low-energy, bioinspired process. Led by Nima Rahbar, the Ralph H. White Family Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, the research team engineered ESM by using an enzyme that helps convert carbon dioxide into solid mineral particles. These particles were then bound together and cured under mild conditions, enabling the resulting material to be molded into structural forms within hours. Unlike traditional concrete, which requires high temperatures and weeks of curing, ESM is created rapidly and with a dramatically lower environmental impact. “Concrete is the most widely used construction material on the planet, and its production accounts for nearly 8% of global CO2 emissions,” said Rahbar. “What our team has developed is a practical, scalable alternative that doesn’t just reduce emissions—it actually captures carbon. Producing a single cubic meter of ESM sequesters more than 6 kilograms of CO2, compared to the 330 kilograms emitted by conventional concrete.” ESM’s rapid curing, tunable strength, and recyclability make it especially promising for real-world applications such as roof decks, wall panels, and modular building components. Its repairability could cut long-term construction costs and drastically reduce the volume of material sent to landfills each year. “If even a fraction of global construction shifts toward carbon-negative materials like ESM, the impact could be enormous,” added Rahbar. This innovation has potential value for industries ranging from affordable housing and climate-resilient construction to disaster relief, where lightweight, quickly produced structural materials can accelerate rebuilding efforts. Because ESM is produced with low energy and renewable biological inputs, it also aligns with global goals for carbon-neutral infrastructure and circular manufacturing.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (W.P.I.) has launched a new Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity program to prepare students to design, analyze, and secure modern computing systems across industries. The new degree builds upon W.P.I.’s nationally recognized strengths in computer science (CS), electrical and computer engineering (ECE), and cybersecurity research. Its unique integration of C.S. and E.C.E. prepares students to understand and secure systems from the hardware circuits to the software that runs on them. Designated by the National Security Agency as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research, W.P.I. has been contributing to this vital field for nearly three decades, conducting cutting-edge research and training professionals who have shaped secure computing. Today, W.P.I. continues to advance cybersecurity research and education in hardware and software security, cryptography, analysis of security policies and protocols, network and embedded systems security, and online privacy. “With cyber threats evolving faster than most organizations can respond and targeting both software and hardware vulnerabilities, preparing a workforce of creative, ethical, and highly skilled cybersecurity professionals is essential,” said Grace Wang, President of W.P.I. “Through this new degree, W.P.I. continues to strengthen its leadership in cybersecurity education and research—advancing our mission to use science, engineering, and technology for the greater good.” According to a report cited by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, there were more than 514,000 open cybersecurity positions in the U.S. in 2023, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting 35% job growth in the field—much faster than the national average. Globally today’s cybersecurity talent shortage is estimated at more than four million professionals. “The shortage of security experts is not merely an issue of headcount; it’s a critical mismatch in skills,” said Craig Shue, professor and head of the Department of Computer Science. “Organizations report significant gaps in the expertise needed to manage increasingly sophisticated threats, leaving businesses, governments, and institutions more vulnerable to data breaches, financial fraud, and other cyberattacks. This is detail-oriented work where security experts have to get everything right to successfully protect people.” The Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity will prepare students for a range of professional roles, including security analysts, penetration testers, security architects, incident responders, malware analysts, cyber-risk analysts, and data privacy officers. The program integrates coursework from computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and mathematical sciences. Students will gain experience in both software and hardware security, network and cryptographic systems, organizational and societal security, and human factors in technology design. “Cybersecurity today demands architects, not just defenders. Our students will learn to design secure systems from first principles, anticipate emerging threats, and communicate complex ideas clearly,” said Robert Walls, associate professor of computer science and director of W.P.I.’s cybersecurity program. “These are essential skills for safeguarding the digital infrastructure our society depends on.” The new bachelor’s degree also builds on W.P.I.’s leading role in national workforce development initiatives to strengthen the nation’s cybersecurity and AI capacity. The university is one of a select group of academic institutions spearheading the DRiving Automotive Industry WorkForce Transformation (DRIFT) program, supported by a $2.5 million grant from the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (N.C.A.E.-C). DRIFT focuses on upskilling professionals to secure connected vehicle systems and strengthen the cybersecurity and AI infrastructure of the U.S. automotive industry. In addition, W.P.I. is part of a coalition of universities, colleges, and cybersecurity organizations offering education through the Strengthen Workforce Education for Excellence in Programming Securely (SWEEPS) program—also funded by a $2.5 million N.C.A.E.-C grant—to train software developers nationwide in secure coding practices through online courses, bootcamps, and certificates. Further bolstering its leadership, W.P.I. is home to one of only two academics research microscopes in the U.S. dedicated to semiconductor cybersecurity—and the only one of its kind in New England. This specialized equipment, funded by the National Science Foundation, supports research into hardware-level vulnerabilities and defenses that are critical to national technology security. The Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity will begin enrolling students in fall 2026.

Brittany Frederick became WPI’s new director of multicultural education and community engagement last winter, just as many colleges and universities were eliminating their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Her appointment reflects WPI’s ongoing commitment to fostering a kind and caring community. Frederick holds a PhD in history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she focused on the intersection of race and gender in higher education through U.S. history. That context and perspective help Frederick take the long view when approaching her work with WPI’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education (ODIME). As a self-described nerd who loves gaming and watching Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, she says she feels right at home at WPI. Keep reading to learn more about the Bronx, N.Y., native. Q: What drew you to this ODIME director position at WPI? A: It started while I was working on my PhD. I was always looking for educational opportunities outside of the classroom, which led me to take a graduate assistantship in the Office of Inclusion and Engagement at UMass Amherst. And I realized I really liked this type of work. It’s student affairs work, but outside of residential life, which is where I’d worked all through my undergraduate and graduate career. When I went to Penn State to complete my postdoctoral fellowship, there was an opening in the Fox Graduate School doing similar diversity-related work with students. I took that job but knew I could make more of an impact at a mid-size institution like WPI than I could at a huge school like Penn State. I wanted to be a person with a face. I wanted to lead and to make change. And once I understood more about WPI, I realized it would be a really good fit for me because you can be your own quirky person here. Q: Now that you’ve been here for a while, what are you most excited about in your role? A: ODIME is in an interesting place. It’s a difficult place, but it’s also a big, big area of opportunity because we have to re-envision what inclusion and belonging look like moving forward. We need to continue to make sure that our students know that this office is here for them. Q: Why is having an office like ODIME important for students? A: At the turn of the 19th century, and with the establishment of land grant institutions, you may have gone to your math class, your agriculture class, your Latin class, and then home. But then students felt as if they needed something else, some sort of enrichment adjacent to the academic experience but still educational. This is where we see the beginning of fraternal societies—and then social clubs more generally. What we now know as “student affairs” began because students and universities saw a benefit in programs that foster the growth of the whole student as a person, not just as an academic pupil. Without the work that student affairs does outside of the classroom, students do not thrive in the classroom. If students don’t have ways to express themselves, to process the things that they’re going through, to make friends and build community, they cannot succeed in the classroom. At first I thought I would not fit in at a STEM school like WPI. But I am not here to help anyone solve a math equation. Students come to me to talk about their study habits. They come to me about fitting in and making friends, about identity issues and who they are. These are all things that I can help with. And once students can address those concerns that they have outside of the classroom, they can thrive in the classroom. Q: Part of what ODIME has done historically is to help vulnerable members of our campus community feel seen and valued. How are you doing that while also complying with federal mandates to ensure that spaces and programs are open to everyone? A: We’re keeping the spirit of our programs and being much clearer that they are open to all. For example, the National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) supported students underrepresented in STEM with career, mentorship, and peer-advising programs. The NSF ended that program, but we’re still providing those supports, and we’re ensuring all students have access. The Connections Pre-Orientation Program—which helps first-year students transition to college life—is another example of a program that has always been open to all, but we now say more explicitly that it is open for everybody. This didn’t change any of the programming that we did this summer during the week of Connections. We offered the same opportunities to build community, learn campus resources, and engage with faculty and staff. I don’t think our purpose and our function has changed, but we’ve had to be more clear in our language about what we offer and who we offer it to. Students, faculty, and staff may interpret that as some sort of capitulation, but we either remain in compliance with federal mandates or close the office. So we do what we have to so we can continue to serve our student populations in need of support. I’m passionate about the work that I do, and if I felt as if I had to change my intent, then I would no longer be working here. In terms of making sure that we serve our students, my approach has always been the same: To be present, to be visible, to be around. That’s my biggest priority right now, just making sure all students know that this resource is here for them. Q: Why does multicultural education still matter on our campus? A: Multicultural education still matters—and “multicultural” means more than just race—in part because when you send your student out into the world, you want them to have an understanding of the world, which includes lots of different people, and exposure to difference is in and of itself a form of education. The second piece of it is that having more perspectives and voices in any kind of experience inherently improves that experience. Systems don’t improve, products don’t improve, laws don’t improve until they are examined by people with different perspectives. That could be the difference between someone who grew up in New Jersey versus someone who grew up in California. Or someone who grew up in a single-parent household versus someone who grew up with two parents. All of those differences are part of multiculturalism. Q: What do you think is the most valuable lesson our campus community can learn through ODIME? A: That there’s still work to be done. I’m not sure there will be a point in my lifetime, or our collective lifetime, that we achieve a fully equitable utopia in higher education. I think there will always be systems of inequity, whether overt or covert, that impact the educational experience for students, faculty, and staff. ODIME is here to steward that work, but it’s on all of us—every single person on this campus—to make sure our campus is as inclusive as possible. Q: The focus of your PhD is incredibly relevant to your role as ODIME director. How does your training and background inform how you approach directing WPI’s multicultural education program? A: It has equipped me with the knowledge that change is slow. Very, very, very slow. And you have to be patient with the rate of institutional change. It’s easy to get burned out and frustrated when things don’t move as quickly as you want them to, but change only happens when you stay present and persistent with your goals. Q: Knowing that, how do you stay optimistic in your role? A: My favorite population of students is first-year students. Their optimism is infectious. They have such a pure, unsullied view of the world that hasn’t been changed yet by the realities of life. (For the most part; I know that’s not the experience of every first-year student.) I also really enjoy seniors and being inspired by those feelings of possibility that they have as they go out into the world. And I get to witness both of those perspectives every year. So for me, the students make the job.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Jeffrey Bourgeois has been awarded a $542,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to identify genetic factors that influence inflammation in humans who have been infected with the tick-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease. The goal is to enable better prediction, prevention, and treatment of Lyme disease, which can lead to serious inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis, and long-term illness. “Some patients have mild inflammatory responses to Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, while others suffer severe symptoms, even well after treatment,” said Bourgeois, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology and Biotechnology. “It’s not clear why patients have such different experiences. We need a better understanding of how small differences in human genes across individuals may be driving inflammation.” Over three years, Bourgeois will build a library of human blood samples and develop a laboratory process to screen macrophages, a type of white blood cell, for genes that have been activated after exposure to B. burgdorferi. He will identify small changes in the DNA code within genes that are associated with the immune system’s response to infection, including disruptions in immune “memory” that leave some patients struggling with persistent symptoms. In addition, he will examine associations between differences in DNA sequences in blood samples collected from patients with longer-term symptoms. The grant is part of a military initiative to accelerate research that could lead to advances in preventing and treating Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases in military members, veterans, their families, and the public. Lyme disease was first identified in 1975 in Lyme, Conn., by researchers investigating a cluster of children with juvenile arthritis. An estimated 476,000 people are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease every year in the United States, and most cases occur in the Northeast and Midwest. The disease moves from animals to humans through black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks. The ticks feed on infected mice and birds, and the ticks then transmit the spiral-shaped bacteria to humans through a bite. One sign of infection is a telltale circular rash at the site of a tick bite. If treated with antibiotics soon after infection, Lyme disease patients typically recover rapidly and completely. However, some patients never develop a rash and may not know that they have been bitten until the illness has progressed to more severe symptoms. Bourgeois joined the WPI faculty in 2025 after earning his PhD at Duke University and completing post-doctoral research at Tufts University. A Rhode Island native, he earned his bachelor’s degree at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. For Bourgeois, focusing his research on B. burgdorferi is a chance to solve a puzzle and a personal matter. “B. burgdorferi is challenging,” Bourgeois said. “In nature, it exists only in ticks and vertebrates like mice. In labs, it is difficult to culture and study. Yet it causes so many health problems for humans. I grew up in New England, where Lyme disease was first recognized, and I have friends who’ve had Lyme disease, so I understand the impact this disease can have on people.” This work will be supported by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Tick-Borne Disease Research Program, endorsed by the Department of Defense under Award number HT9425-25-1-0547. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense.

Among the many things that can make the heart pound—a new love, a scary movie, a vigorous workout—an irregular heartbeat known as ventricular tachycardia is particularly dangerous. Errant electrical signals make the heart race, sometimes too fast to pump blood. Patients may faint, and prolonged arrhythmias can even cause death. All too often, ablation procedures that aim to scar small sections of heart tissue contributing to the arrhythmia simply fail to work. WPI researcher Shijie Zhou is working to change that by using large sets of data from noninvasive clinical tests, computational methods, and artificial intelligence to reconstruct cardiac events such as arrhythmias in digital models. His goal is to make ablation procedures safer and more accurate. With funding from the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, Zhou is developing technologies that can precisely map electrical circuits in the heart, pinpoint problem spots, and identify the best sites for treatment. “It is very challenging to treat ventricular tachycardia,” says Zhou, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “After ablation, ventricular tachycardia recurs about 30% to 70% of the time. However, with algorithms and data gathered from many patients, we can build tools that will enable clinicians to work toward better outcomes for patients.” Ventricular tachycardia originates in the lower chambers, or ventricles, of the heart and is often caused by heart disease. Treatments include drugs such as beta-blockers, implanted pacemakers, catheter ablation, and radiation. A minimally invasive procedure, catheter ablation involves inserting a long flexible tube into a blood vessel, guiding a probe to a specific spot in the heart, and then using radiofrequency energy or extreme cold to scar the tissue and block irregular signals. Zhou, who joined the WPI faculty in 2024, was a master’s student in computer engineering when a business executive encouraged him to develop a smartphone app for people with arrhythmias. As he learned about the challenges involved in treating ventricular tachycardia, Zhou pivoted into a PhD and biomedical engineering program at Dalhousie University in Canada that included two years of medical school courses. “My background includes both medical and engineering training, and my goal is to advance research from the laboratory to the clinic within a few years,” Zhou says. “Translational research is fascinating to conduct, but it’s also important for patients.” Now Zhou’s research builds on information collected about the heart through noninvasive methods, including sensors placed on the body to record electrical signals and computer tomography that stitches together two-dimensional scans to create three-dimensional images. Zhou received a Career Development Award from the AHA in March 2025 to develop software that uses scans and data to build a 3D computer model, or “digital twin,” of a patient’s heart. The three-year $231,000 project aims to build a system that can spot the exact location where an arrhythmia starts. Zhou and a collaborator will test the software in a pilot study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The AHA awarded Zhou a separate two-year $199,999 grant in June 2025 to develop an AI tool that automatically analyzes raw electrocardiogram signals. ECGs use electrodes placed on the skin to measure the electrical activity of the heart. Zhou’s project will develop a tool that can objectively and precisely predict optimal sites in a patient’s heart for ablation, potentially making procedures shorter and more accurate. More recently, the NIH awarded a $232,500 grant to Zhou in September 2025 for a two-year project to create a technology that will identify targets for cardiac stereotactic body radiotherapy. Also known as cSBRT, the noninvasive procedure uses highly focused beams of radiation to ablate abnormal tissue in the heart. Zhou will use a large clinical dataset, with personal details removed and accurate information from catheter ablations, to validate a noninvasive functional and structural localization approach to identifying targets for radiation. In his laboratory, Zhou projects colorful digital images of hearts on his computer screen, complete with depictions of muscle fiber and the electrical points where irregular signals are firing. The technology builds on work he launched during his PhD training at Dalhousie University, a clinical cardiac electrophysiology research fellowship with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, and postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University, where he developed and patented several related inventions. “Some arrhythmia patients undergo ablation more than once because the procedure so often fails,” Zhou says. “At a certain point, patients can no longer receive ablation. It is important to improve this procedure and get real solutions into the hands of doctors.”

As climate-induced disasters such as hurricanes grow more frequent and severe in Puerto Rico, communities across the archipelago are increasingly relying on mutual-aid networks to protect one another. A set of emergency preparedness strategies developed by a Puerto Rican mutual-aid hub and WPI students may advance the effectiveness and sustainability of those grassroots efforts. In new research published in the journal Disasters, WPI students and faculty advisors associated with the university’s San Juan, Puerto Rico, Project Center report on the creation of the Disaster Response Mobilization System (DRMS), a community-based emergency management system. The DRMS was co-designed and co-piloted with Centro de Apoyo Mutuo, Las Carolinas, a mutual-aid hub based in Caguas, Puerto Rico. “The DRMS reflects the reality that neighbors often serve as first responders in Puerto Rico,” says Tara Checko ’25, one of the authors on the research article. Other authors were Abigail Sumner ’25, John-Michael Davis, assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies (DIGS), and Sarah Molinari, an assistant teaching professor in DIGS. The authors identified three insights from the development of the DRMS that could advance the effectiveness and sustainability of community-based disaster preparedness: • The DRMS can serve as one approach within a broader community engagement and resilience planning process. • Community-driven implementations of the DRMS can build preparedness and provide an entry point for marginalized communities to connect to other networks of pre- and post-disaster support. • Volunteer-based community disaster preparedness efforts face sustainability and scalability challenges and require support from additional relevant stakeholders. The research that led to the DRMS started in early 2024 when a team of students that included Checko and Sumner were working on an Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), an interdisciplinary project that examines a problem or need at the intersection of science and society. All WPI undergraduates must complete an IQP to graduate. Drawing on the experience of Hurricane Maria in 2017 and ongoing infrastructural failures that disproportionately impacted elderly and disabled residents, WPI students worked with Centro de Apoyo Mutuo, Las Carolinas, to design the DRMS so it would reflect the community’s specific challenges, strengths, and local knowledge. Faculty advisors, students, and the community partner co-created and co-piloted the system using household surveys and geo-located coordinates on Google My Maps. The group had three goals: assess household preparedness for disasters to guide hub strategies such as resource stockpiling and community engagement; identify household assets available to the community during a disaster, as well as household vulnerabilities such as medical or mobility conditions that may require extra support; and map household assets and vulnerabilities for community and other first responders. Checko and Sumner revisited the project during summer 2024 in an experimental course, Post-IQP Academic Publishing. The course was created by Davis and offered students an opportunity to return to their IQP research, sharpen their academic writing, and co-author a peer-reviewed journal article. Faculty advisors guided students through the publishing process—from engaging with the relevant literature to refining arguments and responding to reviewer feedback—to create a pathway for students to contribute to scholarly conversations and amplify the impact of their global project work. The authors said that the DRMS offers a promising, adaptable model for communities across Puerto Rico and beyond that are seeking to strengthen local disaster preparedness. “By focusing on community knowledge and fostering mutual-aid networks, the system can be scaled and tailored to diverse contexts, providing a strategy for grassroots organizations to build resilience from the ground up and connect more effectively with external support systems,” says Sumner.

A team of researchers that includes Worcester Polytechnic Institute computer scientist Kyumin Lee has developed a DNA testing procedure that could potentially help border control agents identify fins and other illegally traded parts from endangered sharks and rays. The researchers say their approach, a low-cost assay that involves a heating process and machine learning-based species detection using melting curve analysis, can quickly and accurately identify at least 55 shark and ray species, including 38 species listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The assay is effective even in samples that have been dried, frozen, processed, or cooked into food. “We think of this assay and machine learning-based species detection technology as a molecular enforcement tool that could help law enforcement monitor trade, enforce international regulations, and combat wildlife trafficking,” says Lee, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science. The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, emerged from a four-year collaboration among multiple institutions and supported with $2 million in funding from the National Science Foundation and the Allen Family Philanthropies. The team includes researchers from WPI, Florida International University, and the University of Maryland. The researchers sought to address a problem for law enforcement officers who battle illegal trade in animals and animal products: Fish fins and body parts from different species can appear similar, making it difficult to visually identify those from endangered species. Products also can be mislabeled and disguised, hampering investigations and criminal prosecutions. “A lot of the law enforcement that we’ve worked with in the past say that if they cannot have preliminary evidence within 24 hours, they have to let the container go,” says Diego Cardeñosa, a Florida International University assistant professor of biological sciences and an author on the paper. “If that first layer of proof is gone, then everything else falls.” To improve identification, the researchers focused on a technique called high-resolution melt analysis, which involves collecting DNA from a sample, amplifying a specific section of the genetic code, and then applying heat to measure the rate at which the DNA melts over time. The technique can be used as a relatively quick and simple way to spot genetic differences between samples. After building a library of melting data from 669 known fish samples, the researchers used machine learning to create a model that could compare unidentified samples to the library data. They tested their process using frozen, dried, preserved, processed, and cooked fish samples. The assay, they say, cost about $1.50 per sample, took about two hours to complete using simple equipment that could be installed at ports and other border facilities, and was 99.2% accurate. In addition to Lee and Cardeñosa, the paper’s authors were Zhuang Luo, WPI master of science 2025; Associate Professor DeEtta Mills, Emma Aitken, and Maria A. Herrera, all of Florida International University; John Carlson of the National Marine Fisheries Service; and Gavin Naylor of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Lee has previously researched the spread of phony and malicious online information, and he has worked with Renata Konrad, professor in The Business School, to understand how technologies and tools might be used to combat illegal wildlife trafficking. Threats to endangered sharks and rays are particularly urgent. Sharks and rays have been consumed as food for centuries, notably in Asia. Some Indian communities consider consumption of milk sharks beneficial to pregnant and lactating women. Shark fins are used in traditional Chinese medicine and shark fin soup. However, overfishing has diminished wild populations and endangered many species. Lee says the researchers hope their technology can be shared with law enforcement and developed to assist with anti-trafficking efforts focused on other species. The group also plans to work on technologies that can monitor social networks and e-commerce sites for suspicious trade activity. Other parts of the project will involve identifying trafficking routes and determining actions that will disrupt networks. “This collaboration brings together researchers with unique skills and resources,” Lee says. “Together we’re trying to use our expertise to make a positive impact for social good on an important global problem, which is the illegal and destructive trafficking of wildlife.”

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), in collaboration with Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), the City of Worcester, and more than 30 regional partners, has been awarded $5.2 million from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to establish the BioHub, a transformative initiative designed to power the bioindustrial revolution in Central Massachusetts. The award was announced by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll at an event held at WPI, where she also recognized 14 other innovation and technology projects funded by the state to strengthen Massachusetts’ growing innovation economy. The BioHub will serve as the foundation for a thriving bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem, positioning Worcester and Central Massachusetts as leaders in sustainable biomanufacturing, applied research, and workforce development. “WPI’s strengths in advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, and life sciences make us a natural catalyst for collaboration and economic growth,” said Grace Wang, president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “The BioHub builds on this foundation—bringing together academic, industry, and government partners to drive biomanufacturing innovation, create jobs, and expand opportunity for people across Central Massachusetts and beyond.” Over the next three years, the initiative aims to complete more than 24 pilot projects, train over 500 individuals, and create 3,000 new jobs, with an anticipated twentyfold return on investment in economic output. The initiative also aims to create a network of bioindustrial companies from startup to multinational corporations that will collaboratively shape the course of research and training in this field for years to come. Powered by breakthroughs in genetics, genomics, process engineering, and artificial intelligence, Central Massachusetts is poised to lead a new era of biology-based manufacturing that transforms how food, fuels, chemicals, and materials are produced. The region already ranks among the top 10 emerging biotech hubs in the country, with $4.5 billion in recent projects, a highly skilled workforce, and one of the nation’s densest concentrations of bioengineers and biological technicians. “By designating Worcester as a BioHub, the Healey-Driscoll administration will help the city build on the work it has already been doing to make the city a hub of innovation and help grow industry across the state,” said City Manager Eric Batista. “I am excited to see how WPI and the MBI will accelerate the commercialization of new food, fuels, chemicals, and materials.”  WPI will leverage its extensive research infrastructure and facilities to support and accelerate the work, including the Biomanufacturing Education and Training Center (BETC), a 10,000-square-foot pilot-scale laboratory where theory is put into practice through active training, process development, and scale-up testing. “WPI’s BETC has long been a cornerstone for hands-on learning and industry collaboration in biopharmaceuticals,” said Eric Young, associate professor of chemical engineering and principal investigator for the BioHub project. “Through the BioHub, we’ll expand that impact. This is where research, training, and real-world application truly come together.” In addition, the BioHub calls for the creation of an AI-integrated pilot facility to accelerate scale-up testing, launching a builder’s lab for process optimization, expanding a bio-foundry for bioengineering, developing hands-on and augmented-reality training programs, and connecting academic and industry partners across Massachusetts to form a statewide bioindustrial network. MBI will help guide the strategy for accelerating company growth and scaling innovation. As the region’s longest-running nonprofit life sciences incubator and a leader in developing the Central Massachusetts biomanufacturing sector, MBI will work with academic, industry, and government partners to connect emerging ventures to facilities, technical support, and talent pipelines. “When we developed the regional biomanufacturing strategy, we knew that focused collaboration and investment in Central Massachusetts was the key to global competitiveness. This investment from the Healey-Driscoll administration recognizes what’s already happening here on the ground,” said Jon Weaver, president and CEO of MBI. “We’ve grown biomanufacturing jobs by more than 84% in the last five years, even as other regions have struggled. The BioHub is about continuing that momentum—giving companies the tools, space, and skilled workforce they need to thrive in Central Massachusetts.”

WPI faculty members Jennifer Rudolph, historian of modern China and professor in humanities and arts, and Lane Harrison, data visualization expert and associate professor in computer science, have received a $600,000, two-year International Peace and Security Program grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to advance an international project called Mapping Global China, with collaborator Maria Adele Carrai, assistant professor of Global China Studies at New York University Shanghai. Mapping Global China aims to help people better understand China’s expanding role on the world stage by creating an open-access digital platform that integrates curated datasets, interactive maps, and advanced data visualization. By combining qualitative and quantitative data, the initiative enables scholars, policymakers, educators, and students to explore how China’s global engagements intersect with local contexts and impact global structures. This innovative, interdisciplinary approach brings together expertise in history, law, economics, cartography, and geography with WPI’s strengths in computer science and data visualization to provide accessible, unbiased resources that help reposition understanding of China both within and outside of its state borders. “Mapping Global China is designed to provide a clearer, more nuanced understanding of China’s global presence,” said Rudolph. “By allowing users to access integrated and reliable data sets to create tailored maps that advance significant research questions, the site supports informed decision-making for scholars and policymakers worldwide.” The grant also supports extensive student and faculty involvement at WPI. Harrison and Rudolph are leading a collaborative effort that includes advising two Major Qualifying Project (MQP) student teams, co-advised by Diane Strong, professor in WPI’s Business School, and incorporating into the site a story map on Confucius Institutes developed by a WPI Chinese Studies minor with assistance of the Global Lab. In January 2026, a WPI PhD student in computer science will join the project to incorporate cutting-edge machine learning and visualization technologies to take the project and the field to new levels. A second advanced WPI PhD student in computer science will join in year two of the grant. In addition to the interactive digital platform that will allow users to create their tailored maps, the project will produce a collected volume, Global China: Histories, Methods, Encounters, co-edited by Rudolph and Carrai, as well as an atlas. The Mapping Global China initiative also includes themed working groups, research briefs, story maps, and interviews with experts on various aspects of China’s global impact.

A WPI experiment focused on a new way to prevent electronics from overheating flew into space September 18, 2025, aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft, giving researchers led by Jamal Yagoobi a critical opportunity to advance their technology by testing it in zero-gravity and multi-gravity settings. The uncrewed suborbital flight lasted just over 10 minutes, including slightly more than three minutes of weightlessness, and carried more than 40 scientific and research payloads. Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft blasted off and landed at a site near El Paso, Texas, while Yagoobi, the George F. Fuller Professor of Mechanical Engineering, watched a live webcast of the flight in his Multi-Scale Heat Transfer Laboratory with students who had worked on the WPI experiment. “Many people, including students and collaborators at NASA, deserve credit for working hard on this project during the years leading up to this mission,” says Yagoobi. “The results of our experiment aboard the flight confirm that our design can significantly reduce the surface temperatures of electronics in zero-gravity and much higher gravity conditions. Because of the excellent results we obtained, we are very close to commercializing our electrohydrodynamic cooling technology, as our project has reached a new level of maturity as designated by NASA’s Technology Readiness Level.” The project, funded by NASA, sought to address an out-of-this-world challenge that could have implications for future spaceships and satellites. On Earth, liquids boil upon encountering hot objects, and vapor carries away the heat, making boiling a liquid an efficient way to cool heated items. However, in space, where there is no gravity, vapor bubbles cannot rise from a boiling liquid and heat does not dissipate effectively or at all. To enable heat transfer in small spaces to avoid overheating, Yagoobi and his team adopted an electrohydrodynamic approach. Yagoobi’s gravity-independent hardware improves two-phase, or liquid-vapor, heat transfer by extracting vapor bubbles away from a heated surface during boiling with a dielectrophoretic mechanism, which leverages an electrical field to move bubbles. This thin-film boiling technology is a thermal management system that acquires heat non-mechanically at higher rates while consuming negligible power.  NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center collaborated with the WPI team to fabricate parts for the experiment, which was vacuum-sealed inside a metal chamber and housed in a locker that measured about 24 by 24 by 18 inches. Yagoobi traveled to Blue Origin’s Texas site in August with PhD student Matthew Catuccio and Alexander Castaneda, PhD ’25, to install the final pieces of hardware on the experiment. Two others in Yagoobi’s lab, Nate O’Connor, PhD ’23, and PhD student Lindsey Podlaski, have also worked on the project. “I am extremely grateful to have been a part of this project from its early stages to now,” says Castaneda. “To see it fly on a rocket into space is extremely rewarding and feels like the next step to pushing the technology readiness of this project. I am hopeful that the data from this experiment will lead to many more space launches for our laboratory at WPI.” Castaneda joined Blue Origin as an employee in September. “As an individual, this has been an incredible opportunity to work on a very cool experiment that got to go to space,” says Catuccio. “It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I also know this experiment is a major step forward for the laboratory. The technology being tested is very innovative and has the potential to reach integration into real application very soon.” Yagoobi has been exploring the problem of cooling in space for over 30 years, both on Earth and in the skies. He, his PhD students, and his collaborators at NASA have tested earlier versions of their technology aboard several of NASA’s parabolic flights, in which airplanes repeatedly climbed and plunged through the skies to produce 20-second bursts of weightlessness. Yagoobi also had a different experiment aboard the International Space Station for more than a year. The work was supported by the Biological and Physical Sciences Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters under NASA grants NNX16AT09G and 80NSSC22K0676. Blue Origin is a privately held space flight company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos. The flight was the 35th and final mission for New Shepard, an autonomous and fully reusable rocket-and-capsule system built to fly people and payloads beyond the Kármán line, the boundary of outer space 62 miles above the Earth’s surface. Yagoobi continues to be passionate about space as reflected from his continuous engagement with NASA’s Goddard and Glenn Research Center. “When I was young, I dreamed about being an astronaut and traveling into space,” he says. “It has been very rewarding to work on this and other projects with so many students, researchers, and engineers who share my lab’s vision of contributing to space exploration.”

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), two nationally recognized institutions with complementary strengths in health science and biomedical engineering, are expanding their academic partnership with new degree pathways. Building on a long-standing relationship, this new agreement creates streamlined pathways for students to pursue advanced degrees across disciplines such as pharmacy and biomedical engineering—while remaining immersed in Worcester’s thriving academic and innovation ecosystem. The expanded partnership promotes collaborations of mutual interest and benefit and formalizes a series of articulated degree programs that will allow qualified undergraduate students from one institution to seamlessly transition into graduate programs at the other. These pathways are designed to help students accelerate their education, broaden their career prospects, and contribute to the evolving landscape of healthcare, life sciences, and technology. Students graduating from WPI with degrees in biology, chemistry, or related STEM fields will now have streamlined access to advanced degrees at MCPHS, including the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program. Similarly, MCPHS students completing degrees in molecular biology, biotechnology, or pharmacy will be able to pursue graduate-level studies at WPI in biomedical engineering. The agreement comes at a pivotal moment, as interdisciplinary knowledge and collaboration are increasingly essential to addressing global challenges. With Worcester emerging as a regional hub for biotechnology, medical research, and advanced manufacturing, WPI and MCPHS are uniquely positioned to train professionals who will drive innovation and improve lives. “By creating clear, cross-institutional pathways that connect WPI’s strengths in biomedical engineering with MCPHS’s expertise in pharmacy and health sciences, we are preparing students to advance from rigorous undergraduate programs into specialized graduate study,” said WPI President Grace Wang. “These programs will produce highly skilled professionals ready to make real impact, from leading breakthrough medical research to developing innovative biotech and pharmaceutical solutions that improve health and fuel the growth of the life sciences economy.” “Through this agreement, this partnership reflects the spirit of collaboration that defines Worcester’s higher education ecosystem. MCPHS is proud to strengthen our long-standing partnership with WPI, creating new opportunities for students to seamlessly advance their education and careers at the intersection of healthcare, life sciences, and technology,” said Richard Lessard, president of MCPHS. The degree pathways feature clearly defined academic journeys, streamlined admissions processes, and personalized advising from faculty and admissions liaisons at both institutions. Students will benefit from an efficient transition between institutions to study in the heart of Worcester, a city rich with opportunity, innovation, and a strong sense of community. Students enrolled in these programs must meet GPA and course prerequisites, and final admissions decisions will be handled by the relevant program at each institution. Details for each program pairing will be available on the WPI and MCPHS websites, ensuring transparency and consistency. This agreement reflects a shared mission to empower students, support workforce development in the region, and strengthen the city’s position as a center of academic and professional excellence.

Jean King, the Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences, has been named to the newly launched Neuroarts Academic Network (NAN). The network, created by the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative, brings together leaders from 38 universities and organizations worldwide to advance the emerging interdisciplinary field of neuroarts—the study of how the arts affect the brain, body, and behavior and how this knowledge is applied to improve health and well-being. King’s appointment highlights both her expertise at the intersection of arts and humanities with neuroscience and WPI’s commitment to exploring how creative expression can drive innovation and well-being. At WPI, King has championed cross-disciplinary approaches that integrate the arts and sciences, reflecting the university’s broader mission to harness creativity and research in ways that positively impact society. NAN seeks to establish neuroarts as a recognized academic and professional field. The network’s goals include connecting existing programs, encouraging new research and training opportunities, building career pathways that combine the arts and health, and supporting the long-term growth of the field. “I am honored to join the Neuroarts Academic Network and contribute to this important effort to show how the arts and creative expression can shape our health, our communities, and our future,” said King. “This field has long been a passion of mine, and I am excited to help advance the science that shows the transformative power of the arts in our lives.” Led by Johns Hopkins University’s International Arts + Mind Lab and the Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine & Society Program, and supported by The Music Man Foundation, the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative underscores the transformative role of the arts in medicine, public health, education, and beyond. Susan Magsamen, New York Times bestselling author and NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative co-director, was a featured speaker at this year’s Arts and Sciences Week at WPI. She told the standing-room-only crowd gathered for her talk, “Neuroarts is the true marriage of arts and sciences. This field of study is both long overdue and just in time.” Read the full announcement from the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative.

Q: Looking back to the program’s launch, what problem in higher education or industry were you trying to solve? A: It was clear there was a talent gap. Businesses, government, and organizations needed skilled workers who could access big data, analyze it, and turn it into insights to drive decision-making, from sales and sciences to services. There weren’t enough people with the right skills. As the world grew more data-driven, we at WPI saw an opportunity to step in, using our expertise to educate the next generation of data professionals and help drive the economy forward. Q: A decade ago, “data science” wasn’t a common term—most people talked about “big data.” How did you decide on the program’s name? A: I vividly remember trying to find the appropriate name for this new major. As an interdisciplinary team of colleagues from computer science, mathematical sciences, and business, we spent half of the time designing the curriculum, and half of the time we were having fun debating what to call it. In retrospect, the name we chose fit perfectly: We’re working with data and we’re answering fundamental scientific questions. Calling it “data science” gave the program academic staying power. And we got it right—today, everyone uses the term “data scientists” for the data modeling professionals in this field. Q: How close is WPI’s program today to your original vision? A: I’d say 110%. We dreamed big, and it has come together even better than we dreamed. The program now delivers rigorous training in mathematical foundations—like statistical machine learning—while offering a wide range of cutting-edge computational courses, from deep learning and reinforcement learning to natural language processing and beyond. When we started, we knew there was great potential, but what now has become reality and the impact it allows us to make on our students is truly rewarding. Q: How has demand from industry influenced the direction of the program? A: From day one, we set out to make this a program where students don’t just graduate with knowledge—they graduate with the skill set to immediately excel in their profession. In that sense, industry demand has been our compass. To ensure that, I formed an executive industry advisory board for data science composed of professional leaders in the field. They share real-time insights on where their companies—and the field at large—are heading, allowing us to have a finger on the pulse through the disruptive transformations we encountered, from COVID-19 to the invention of generative AI. Those insights don’t just inform us, they help us transform our curriculum. Courses and projects have been developed from those conversations, ensuring our students aren’t just prepared for meeting the demands of today’s jobs but are also equipped to shape tomorrow’s opportunities. Q: What kinds of companies and industries do you engage with? A: We engage with companies across all industries. Our graduates work in banking, finance, engineering, energy, startups, global corporations, and government labs. They’ve joined organizations like National Grid, Google DeepMind, DataRobot, Bose, Microsoft, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Capital One, Mitre Corporation, Dell Technologies, Fidelity Investments, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and many more. Because data science is so versatile, our students can be found contributing to nearly every sector. Q: What’s the “secret sauce” of WPI’s success in data science? A: Our students develop a distinctive combination of skills. They know how to analyze data and use computational tools, but they also have strong communication, collaboration, and business skills. They’re willing to dive in and tackle complex problems, working closely with engineers, marketers, or social scientists—whatever the challenge requires. That flexibility makes them highly sought-after and opens doors to a wide array of career opportunities. Q: What unique opportunities does WPI offer data science students? A: One of the most distinctive opportunities in the data science program at WPI is the Graduate Qualifying Project (GQP) we offer in close partnership with our industry partners. Every master’s student tackles a real-world project sponsored by industry—not hypothetical problems, but actual challenges companies need solved. It’s similar to a focused internship or co-op. Students contribute to products, processes, and even intellectual property for their sponsoring company while gaining hands-on experience they can showcase on their résumés. Our WPI faculty play a key role in mentoring these projects. Similar opportunities are available to undergraduate students as well. Q: Technology has changed rapidly over the past 10 years. How has the curriculum kept pace? A: We constantly update. While some of the core principles remain the same, tools and techniques evolve quickly. Every year faculty adjust their existing courses and design new ones to say current. This year, for example, we launched an experimental course on natural language processing and large language models, while last year we added courses in machine learning operations (known as MLOps) and responsible AI. Our strong PhD program, along with WPI’s support for hiring faculty experts in emerging areas, allows us to quickly translate cutting-edge research into project-based learning and teaching. Q: In what ways has the data science program shape WPI’s broader AI offerings? A: Here at WPI, data science and AI are inseparable. Our faculty have been at the forefront of applying machine learning and deep learning to solve problems—that’s AI. Many of our data science faculty hold joint appointments in computer science and other departments across campus, so their expertise naturally extends to AI research and teaching. Industry demand for skills like natural language processing pushed us to hire in those areas, which in turn strengthened WPI’s AI program. You could say the growth of data science in terms of faculty recruitment and curriculum development helped lay the foundation for AI at WPI. Q: Looking ahead, what’s your roadmap for the next decade? A: I see a decade where data science and AI fuse even more—but the real frontier isn’t just technology; it’s humanity. By partnering with other disciplines, including social sciences, we can understand the human impact of automation, build safeguards, and ensure systems are trustworthy and empowering. The goal is clear: Create technologies that amplify human potential and serve society. That’s not just our roadmap—it’s our mission, with excitement and challenges of the next decade.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has announced the appointment of Emily Perlow as vice president for student affairs and dean of students, effective immediately. Perlow, who has served WPI since 2005 and most recently as assistant vice president and dean of students, has long been recognized as a champion for students and an empowering mentor for her team. In her new role, Perlow will oversee all areas within student affairs, including career development, housing and dining, physical education, athletics, recreation, student activities and engagement, support for WPI’s diverse student populations, health and well-being, student conduct, the Rubin Campus Center, and the bookstore. “Emily has consistently demonstrated empathetic and principled leadership that puts students at the center of everything she does,” said Grace J. Wang, president of WPI. “Her vision, dedication, and deep knowledge of higher education will continue to strengthen WPI’s commitment to providing an outstanding student experience.” Since joining WPI, Perlow has played a central role in shaping the university’s student experience, from enhancing residential life and student well-being to advancing initiatives that promote belonging and developing leadership opportunities. She has overseen multimillion-dollar housing and dining operations, led crisis response teams, advanced student conduct processes, and secured major grants to support equitable teamwork and universal design in education. “I am honored to step into this role and continue working alongside our remarkable students, staff, and faculty,” said Perlow. “WPI is a community that values innovation, inclusion, and resilience, and I look forward to advancing initiatives that ensure every student thrives personally, academically, and professionally.” Beyond her leadership at WPI, Perlow is widely recognized in the field of student affairs. She has authored numerous articles, book chapters, presentations, and resources on hazing prevention, including editing and contributing to the 2024 New Directions for Student Services monograph, “Special Issue: Understanding and Addressing Hazing,” and has a forthcoming book chapter on hazing prevention in athletics. She also designed the curriculum for and continues to lead the award-winning Hazing Prevention Institute through the Hazing Prevention Network, which received the North American Interfraternity Conference 2024 Laurel Wreath Award. Her professional leadership includes service as vice chair of the board of directors for Worcester’s Friendly House Inc., participation on numerous accreditation visit teams for the New England Commission of Higher Education, and more than a decade of teaching as an adjunct instructor in the Student Development in Higher Education program at Central Connecticut State University. Her professional excellence has also been recognized with the Talent of Leadership Award by Alpha Gamma Delta and the Compass Award from the Northeast Greek Leadership Association. Perlow earned her PhD in higher education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where her dissertation examined fraternity men’s gender identity and hazing. She also holds a master of arts in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University and a bachelor of arts in anthropology, with distinction, summa cum laude, from the Ohio State University. Perlow succeeds Philip Clay, who will retire in May after nearly 33 years of dedicated service to WPI, leaving a lasting legacy of commitment to student success and community.

When a group of WPI students and faculty members first set out in 2022 to interview people connected to the rare earth magnet industry, they wanted to know if an innovative magnet recycling business could succeed. After more than 130 interviews, says Adam Powell, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a member of the team, the group concluded that the answer is a qualified “yes.” “We learned there is demand for recycled materials, and a lot of people want a domestic recycling industry to grow,” Powell says. “Yet the reality is that only a small number of U.S. companies are building recycling capacity. The industry is still maturing as companies develop facilities, awareness of recycling grows, and a steady supply of old magnets builds.” “Rare earth” refers to a group of metallic elements such as neodymium that are abundant in the earth’s crust but difficult and environmentally damaging to mine and process. Magnets made from rare earth minerals are used in everything from hybrid and electric vehicles to wind turbines and fighter jets, and the total market for rare earth elements was valued at more than $3 billion in 2023. China supplies most of the world’s rare earth minerals and has used its hold on the market as a political tool. In early 2025, China threatened to limit rare earth exports, especially to Western defense contractors, as a response to U.S. tariffs. During its review, the WPI group found that challenges for rare earth recycling include incentivizing the recycling of materials and competing with magnets made from virgin materials. The WPI group also found that challenges for rare earth recycling include scrap sourcing and the high cost of building recycling facilities. Those challenges could be overcome, the researchers say, by raising awareness about scrap collection, incentivizing the recycling of materials, and passing recycling-friendly legislation. “Launching a profitable and sustainable recycling startup now could be difficult,” says Chinenye Chinwego, PhD ’23, a member of the team and a former graduate student in Powell’s lab. “We can continue to do research on innovative recycling technologies, but it may take several years before there is sufficient scrap at costs low enough to make recycling profitable.” The WPI group, which undertook its market research into rare earth recycling as part of a National Science Foundation I-Corps project, recently published its findings in the Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In addition to Powell and Chinwego, authors were PhD student Daniel Mc Arthur Sehar; Evan MacGregor ’23, M.S. ’23; PhD student Steven Tate, M.S. ’21, MBA ’23, M.S. ’25 ; Kenneth Savage ’23, M.S. ’23; MBA student Thaddaeus Zuber ’22, M.S. ’23; Benjamin Sseruwagi ’23, M.S. ’24; Daniel Dietrich ’22, M.S. ’23; Emmanuel Opoku, M.S. ’24; Rosanna Garcia, Paul R. Beswick ’57 Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in The Business School; Brajendra Mishra, the Kenneth G. Merriam Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering; and David Smith of Newagen Group LLC. The WPI team enrolled in the I-Corps program to assess the outlook for rare earth magnet recycling because I-Corps provides a framework for researchers and inventors to rapidly assess an invention’s market potential. “Technical founders often forget to understand the market needs for their inventions,” says Garcia. “It’s important to conduct customer discovery interviews early in the innovation process, and the group took a methodical and detailed approach to this task.” Chinwego says the group was interested in examining whether a magnet recycling company could reduce material costs for magnet production, reduce dependence on foreign rare earth sources, and support corporate efforts to operate in environmentally sustainable ways. Recycling rare earth magnets involves separating magnets from electronics and extracting rare earth elements using gases, solvents, salts, or other processes. Recycled materials are currently a tiny share of the materials used in magnet manufacturing. Working with the WPI Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the group interviewed individuals from rare earth magnet manufacturing companies, rare earth recycling companies, national laboratories, metal alloy companies, and metal recycling companies. Those interviewed included customers, suppliers, outside experts, and government employees. They also interviewed rare earth magnet cutting companies and electronics manufacturers to assess the availability of scrap magnets for recycling. Although the team identified challenges for rare earth recycling, they also found reasons to think that the industry could grow. “The people we interviewed said that recycling rare earth magnets could mitigate supply risks and appeal to companies that want to decrease their impact on the environment,” says Chinwego. “As demand for rare earth elements grows, recycled materials may even become more cost effective than new materials. Going forward, it will be important to develop business models that prioritize supply chains, costs, and environmental considerations.”