The Global School

An IQP team for Monte Verde planning out a design on paper in a garden
An IQP team from Iceland doing work on a beach

 

The Global School Mission

The Global School is founded on WPI’s half-century of leadership in global project-based learning. The Global School embodies WPI’s commitment to empower our faculty, students, communities, and collaborators to address urgent local and global challenges. Our distinctive interdisciplinary programs immerse students in real-world projects that foster purpose-driven global learning and collaboration. 

This generation of science and engineering students, social innovators, and business leaders must understand the complex interactions of technology and society in a rapidly changing world. This calls for education in inclusive globally minded approaches informed not only by cutting-edge technologies, but also by the social sciences, humanities, arts, and business. The Global School empowers this kind of integrative education and inspires collaboration for a better world.

The faculty in our Department of Integrative and Global Studies are experts in project-based learning and social sciences. We teach the first year Great Problems Seminar and advise team research projects at more than fifty global project centers through our award-winning Global Projects Program. We also offer interdisciplinary graduate programs that center the critical knowledge, collaborative mindset, and interactive methodological tools needed for meaningful community partnerships.

Global School faculty also have substantial research grants to work on major global challenges, from climate adaptation to public interest technology. You can join us in our Global School Forum where we engage with cutting-edge global research that addresses the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals including topics such as health, energy, environment, food, water, and climate change.

CONTACT
Phone: +1-508-831-6566

Our Degree Programs

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MS in Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development

The global MS in science and technology for innovation gives students the opportunity to explore and apply knowledge in design thinking, global technology and development, and technological and scientific innovation to create real change with and within communities. Working collaboratively, student teams, faculty, and community partners identify and work to implement sustainable solutions that promote resilience and change that makes a positive difference for people.

Find out more
Preview WPI students working on their IQP project abroad

MS in Global Health

From biomedical devices to mobile health apps to telemedicine, technology is reshaping every aspect of global health. At WPI, we approach everything—including our global health program—with a STEM focus, making it the ideal place to study. As an institution that believes in turning knowledge into action, our program also provides opportunities to further health equity and social justice.

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Announcements

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News

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Media Coverage

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Telegram.com
Some Mass. towns use beet juice or molasses to fight winter storms: Why are they doing it?

Camila Gomez and Hassan Dajana, graduate students in WPI’s master’s in community climate adaptation program are exploring the potential operational and environmental impacts of using beet juice for treating roads and highways to avoid icing. They spoke with the Telegram & Gazette about preliminary findings from their year-long project with Worcester’s Department of Sustainability & Resilience which is aimed at providing a variety of recommendations to help the city address winter climate resilience. 

 

Nantucket Current
WPI Students Evaluating Nantucket Community Pool Usage

As part of their Interactive Qualifying Project, four students at WPI's Nantucket Project Center are conducting a survey about usage of the Nantucket Community Pool. The project, in partnership with the Nantucket Community School, is one of 89 projects that WPI students have conducted at the project center since 2008 in collaboration with local organizations and town officials. “These projects have covered a wide variety of topics in areas such as energy conservation, museum studies, parks and recreation, coastal erosion, parking, sustainable agriculture, affordable housing, facilities management, light pollution, and town trees," said Nantucket Project Center Director Dominic Golding.

 

Additional Publications: The Inquirer and Mirror
Nantucket Current
Town Pilots New Streetlights On Main Street To Combat Light Pollution

Nantucket is working in partnership with four WPI students and the non-profit Nantucket Lights on a project to reduce light pollution. As part of the students’ Interactive Qualifying Project, the students will take feedback from residents on new LED streetlights and potential future lighting decisions as part of the town's adoption of an outdoor lighting by-law.

Additional Publications: The Inquirer and Mirror
Waste Management Review
JSS project uncovers the importance of recycling education

An article in Australia's Waste Management Review highlighted the work of WPI students during their Interactive Qualifying Project at the Melbourne Project Center. The students helped Jesuit Social Services' Ecological Justice Hub to support local recycling solutions by designing a plastic recycling assembly line to collect, sort, and recycle bottle caps and turn them into new products. In March, the student team was honored for its work as winners of the Forum on Education Abroad's Award for Academic Achievement Abroad.

 

 

 

Project Work in the Global School

The Global School rests on a foundation of extraordinary project work conducted over the past half century and is bolstered with WPI's academic offerings and The Global School's intensive, field-based research approach. To prepare for meaningful careers where they can make real change in the world, students, faculty, and community partners collaborate on team-based, interdisciplinary projects that address real issues in more than 50 communities from the local Worcester region to as far away as Australia. This approach of co-creation transforms lives with ethical and sustainable solutions.

Students work with the university's Global Experience Office to ensure they are fully prepared for their global projects.

The Global Projects Program: Partnering with communities
Learn about our 50+ global project centers
The Great Problems Seminar: Working on urgent global challenges
Teamwork support: The SWEET Center
Global Experience Office
Immersive project experiences
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Great Problems Seminar Celebrates 15 Years

WPI's Great Problems Seminar (GPS) immerses first-year students in university-level research for complex global challenges. This signature program recently marked 15 years of preparing students for developing ethical global solutions, and it also has a new director.

Learn about the GPS 15th anniversary

Research in The Global School

Every student at WPI participates in The Global School research throughout their years here and particularly with their work in the Global Projects Program. The Global School crosses all disciplines to create a network of rich research opportunities and results that foster community-based action. Drawing on deep area knowledge and concern for social justice, our interdisciplinary research, in collaboration with governments, NGOs, and other global organizations, uses design thinking to develop solutions that support community needs and aspirations.

Department of Integrative and Global Studies
The Global Lab
Institute for Science and Technology in Global Development

The Student and Alumni Perspective

Jacob

Alum Success Story: Jacob Morse '21, MS '23

Jacob wants to help cities adapt to climate change

Read more in the WPI Journal
Milanzi

Student Impact

Martin Thulani Milanzi Brings STEM to Refugees in Zambia

read more in the wpi journal

Fulbright Scholar Solange Uwera's Path to WPI

Uwera came to WPI as a Fulbright Scholar and is finding an ideal fit between her ambitious academic pursuits and her varied personal interests.

Read more about Solange Uwera

Project Work Offers an Immersive, Interdisciplinary Experience

image ofa country and fruit

Making a Difference in Armenia

Through a partnership with the American University of Armenia and driven by alum Mike Aghajanian '80, WPI students have worked on projects that make an impact at one of WPI's newer project centers. 

Read more in the WPI Journal
graphic of goat

A Sweet, Interdisciplinary Experience

The Switzerland Project Center is one of the few to host both Interactive Qualifying Projects (IQP) and Major Qualifying Projects (MQP).

Read more in the WPI Journal
buildings

Student Project: Living With Fracking in Albania

This student team won first place in the President's IQP Awards for their project highlighting fracking's impact on women in Albania

Read more in the WPI Journal
New Hampshire map

Global Impact: White Mountains, New Hampshire Project Center

Building Confidence While Helping the Environment

Read more in the WPI Journal
globe

WPI’s First Project Center

WPI's Washington DC project center celebrates its 50th year

Read more in the WPI Journal
Preview students working on robot

Lifelong Impact of Project Work

Discover the long-term professional and personal impact of project-based learning (PBL)

Learn about the significance of PBL
Preview man with map
Meet Our Staff

Q&A with Colin Watters, Director of Global Risk Management

Answers to questions about ways to keep travelers safe 

Read more in the WPI Journal
Preview man
Faculty Snapshot

Dominic Golding

Learn more about the teaching professor of The Global School and director of the London and Nantucket project centers

Read more in the WPI Journal

Do you need more information?

For international research opportunities or institutional collaborations with The Global School contact Dean Mimi Sheller.

For Global Projects Program partnership or project sponsor opportunities, contact Associate Dean Kent Rissmiller.

For graduate studies information in The Global School, contact Professor Sarah Strauss.

For graduate admissions information, contact Graduate Admissions.

For general information, contact Dawn Farmer.

Four Schools. One WPI.

 

School of Arts & Sciences
The Business School
School of Engineering
The Global School