Patents and Inventions Workshop
The Office of Undergraduate Research recently hosted the workshop "Patents and Inventions". During the interactive workshop, WPI undergraduates and professors who have filed and hold patents shared their experiences. Todd Keiller and Sarah Mahan from the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) talked about the ins and outs of inventions, patents, and intellectual property. You can access recordings from the workshop on the Publishing, Presenting, and Patenting page of the Office of Undergraduate Research. A huge thank you to Ellen Clarrissimeaux '21, Prof. Chris Brown, Prof. Emmanuel Agu, Anastasia Karapanagou '19, and the OTC!
Featured Undergraduate Publications
Check out the collection of peer-reviewed articles authored by and with Worcester Polytechnic Institute undergraduate students that were published in 2020. Congratulations to all of the students and their advisors! These and many more are available at the WPI Undergraduate Research Publication Collection.
- "Interfacial States, Energetics, and Atmospheric Stability of Large-Grain Antifluorite Cs2TiBr6" - Jocelyn L. Mendes
- "Measuring and Modeling the Impact of Buffering and Interrupts on Streaming Video Quality of Experience" - Josh Allard, Andrew Roskuski
- "Silk Particle Production Based on Silk/PVA Phase Separation Using a Microfabricated Co-flow Device" - Rachel Peterson
- "Horseradish Peroxidase-Catalyzed Crosslinking of Fibrin Microthread Scaffolds" - Cailin R. Gonyea
- "Experimental Study of Flexible Electrohydrodynamic Conduction Pumping for Electronics Cooling" - Pavolas Christidis, Nathaniel O'Connor, Michal Talmor, Nicolas Vayas Tobar
- "The Impact of Leadered and Leaderless Gene Structures on Translation Efficiency, Transcript Stability, and Predicted Transcription Rates in Mycobacterium smegmatis" - Tien Nguyen
- "Parthenope: A Robotic Musical Siren" - Matthew Bisson, Jordan Grotz, Michael Sidler
- "PERSEUS: Characterizing Performance and Cost of Multi-Tenant Serving for CNN Models" - Matthew LeMay
- "Dynamics of Swimmers in Fluids with Resistance" - Cole Jeznach
- "Estimating Time-Varying Applied Current in the Hodgkin-Huxley Model" - Kayleigh Campbell, Laura Staugler
- "The Exergame Enjoyment Questionnaire (EEQ): An Instrument forMeasuring Exergame Enjoyment" - Alexander Fitzgerald, Sam Huang, Kyle Sposato, Dongjie Wang
- "A Public Good Game with Technological Growth" - Jacqueline Ngo
- "Heterogeneity Profoundly Alters Emergent Stress Fields in Constrained Multicellular Systems" - Vivian Liang
Faculty, if you have published a peer-reviewed article with WPI undergraduate co-authors and the article is not yet on the site, please fill out this form to have your article added to the collection.
Undergraduate Research Highlights
WPI undergraduate students do cutting edge research in a variety of fields, from developing sign language user interfaces to mapping chemicals in stellar forming regions to developing robotic musical sirens. Check out some recent highlights below, and please do reach out to the Office of Undergraduate Research with any student research news that you would like to see shared.
Kevin Stern (Mathematical Sciences, Physics '21) has been doing research with Professor Vadim Yakovlev. Recently, Kevin gave a lightning talk at the MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference titled Simulation of Microwave-Induced Temperature Fields in SiC Composites. Several other WPI undergraduate students also presented their papers at the conference.
- Eric Baccei (Electrical & Computer Engineering '21) and Eric Macorri (Electrical & Computer Engineering '21) working with Prof. Ulkuhan Guler presented the paper, An Analog Front-End For A Noninvasive Core Body Temperature Sensor.
- Fivos Kavassalis (Electrical & Computer Engineering '20) presented the paper, A Photoplethysmography Wearable with Long-term Heart Rate Variability Detection Algorithm.
- Mona Elokda (Electrical & Computer Engineering '20) presented the paper, An Analog Front-End for a Photoplethysmography Patch to Monitor Respiratory Rate.
WPI undergraduates, Isabelle Chan (Mechanical Engineering, Robotics Engineering '21) and Jesse d’Almeida (Robotics Engineering '20), who work with Profs. Loris Fichera and Yuxiang Liu recently had their research paper, On the Merits of Using Angled Fiber Tips in Office-based Laser Surgery of the Vocal Folds, accepted to the 2021 SPIE Medical Imaging Conference. Isabelle and Jesse were supported during the summer by Prof. Fichera's NIH R15 grant.
Malak El Khalkhali (Industrial Engineering '20) was an REU student working with Profs. Renata Konrad and Andrew Trapp. Malak conducted a data envelopment analysis to estimate the effectiveness of identifying human trafficking activity in transnational border crossings. She was the lead author on a paper describing these efforts, which was submitted to the INFORMS Undergraduate Operations Research Prize where her work, Estimating Effectiveness of Identifying Human Trafficking Victims: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis on the Nepal–India Border, was selected as a finalist.
Petra Kumi (Computer Science, Mathematical Sciences '20) was recently highlighted in the WPI Journal for winning a Provost’s MQP Award. For her MQP under Profs. Neamtu, Solovey, and Weekes, Petra used statistical and machine learning methods to develop algorithms intended to detect anomalies in data collected using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), a new type of brain imaging technology. She also created a software platform for users to easily apply these algorithms to their own data. Learn more about Petra's research at the Virtual Undergraduate Research Showcase.
This newsletter is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research at WPI. Please contact Ally Salvino, Assistant, Office of Undergraduate Research, at amsalvino@wpi.edu if you have any questions or undergraduate research highlights.