REGISTER WHO'S COMING?
Manufacturing has been the foundation of the American economy and a powerful driver of innovation and entrepreneurship since the days of the Industrial Revolution. Today, manufacturing and materials have moved far beyond their roots to encompass a diverse array of technologies and processes for making everything from lightweight vehicles to engineered tissue.
Since its inception in 1865, WPI and its alumni have contributed new ideas, new technologies, and new talent to drive the evolution of manufacturing and materials, continuously making profound impact on the challenges of today and tomorrow.
We invite you to join President Grace Wang, WPI faculty, alumni, and industry leaders for a reception and panel discussion on this important topic.
December 6, 2023 at 6:00 PM
Grazina Events (formerly Little Bird Events)
Located at the Norwood Space Center
Building Four, 83 Morse St Unit F, Norwood, MA 02062
Advanced registration is requested and encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome
This Event Features:
- Grace Wang, WPI President
- John McNeill, Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering
- Julie Bliss Mullen BA’12, BS’13, Chief Executive Officer, Aclarity
- John Biagioni MS'03, President, Lampin Corporation
- Danielle Cote MS'10 PhD'14, Harold L. Jurist '61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean's Professor and Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
- Nima Rahbar, Ralph H. White Family Professor of Engineering and Professor of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering
More information on our speakers can be found below.
This is an in-person only event - it will not be livestreamed or recorded.
This event is part of our Beyond These Towers presidential event series. For more information on the series, including other event locations, please click here.
Some Highlights of WPI's Impact in Advanced Manufacturing and Materials
- A low-cost alternative to concrete—one of the largest contributors to climate change—that absorbs CO2 during its formation
- 3D printing technology for the repair of military vehicles and equipment in the field that could increase the readiness of military vehicles and other units
- A solvent-free process to manufacture lithium-ion battery electrodes that are greener, cheaper, and charge faster, an advance that could improve the manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles
- Discoveries that could lead to next-generation targeted treatments for cancer
About Our Speakers
Julie Bliss Mullen BA’12, BS’13, Chief Executive Officer, Aclarity
Julie Bliss Mullen, CEO, founded Aclarity in 2017 to solve the world’s greatest water quality problems. She has built the strongest and most passionate team to solve the PFAS problem by destroying these forever chemicals "forever." Julie spent her early professional career investigating and developing conventional and innovative water treatment technologies while understanding and finding solutions to technology commercialization and regulatory barriers. Julie developed Aclarity’s patent-pending technology as a Ph.D. Candidate and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow (NSF-GRF) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Prior to her studies at UMass, Julie worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an environmental engineer and regulator in the Drinking Water Unit for Region 1 (Boston, MA). She is a proud alumna of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where she studied Environmental Engineering and Environmental & Sustainability Studies. Julie has been recognized as part of the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 cohort in Science, won the Lemelson-MIT award for inventorship in 2019, and was awarded the 2018 Innovator of the Year prize by the North East Water Innovation Network (NEWIN). Julie earned a BA in Environmental & Sustainability Studies and a BS in Environmental Engineering from WPI.
John Biagioni MS’03, President, Lampin Corporation
John Biagioni is currently president of Lampin Corporation, a leading supplier of precision parts and components for major OEMs in the aerospace, telecommunications, robotics, defense, renewable energy, medical device, optical, and laser industries. Previously, he served as president of Dynisco/Viatran/DJ Instruments for almost a decade. John began his career as a machinist and has held numerous positions in the manufacturing sector with significant expertise in procurement and management. The diverse range of manufacturing, operations, and leadership functions John has held give him a unique perspective with a sharp focus on problem-solving. John is also an expert in the analysis and design of IoT-driven smart systems that can improve the efficiency of business processes to deliver additional layers of value for customers.
John earned his BS in Economics from the University of Rhode Island and his MS in Operations and Information Technology from WPI. He also served as Board Advisor for WPI’s CEDAR (Circular Economy and Data Analytics Engineering Research for Sustainability), is a published authority on operational strategy, and holds four patents in sensing and rheological instruments.
Danielle Cote MS’10 PhD’14, Harold L. Jurist '61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean's Professor and Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Danielle Cote is a Harold L. Jurist '61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean's Professor and an assistant professor in Materials Science & Engineering at WPI and director of the Cote Research Group. She received her B.S. from the University of New Hampshire in Chemical Engineering and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from WPI. She also worked as a research engineer at Saint-Gobain High Performance Materials in the Polymer Characterization research group. Danielle’s current research involves computational thermodynamic and kinetic modeling; rapidly solidified materials, with a focus on Al powder alloys (feedstock for AM); solid state additive manufacturing, specifically cold spray processing and characterization; and database development to aid in integrated computational materials science and materials processing. In 2018, she was named to Heat Treat Today’s inaugural 40 Under 40 class. More about Danielle
John McNeil, Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering
John McNeill joined WPI in 1994 after nearly a decade in industry and was named dean in 2021. John is senior member of IEEE and a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Council for Undergraduate Research. His research interests include biomedical sensing, jitter (noise) in integrated oscillators, and digitally assisted calibration of analog-to-digital converters used in low-power sensor systems. John received a bachelor’s degree in engineering sciences from Dartmouth College, an MS in electrical engineering from the University of Rochester, and a PhD in electrical engineering from Boston University. More about John
Nima Rahbar, Ralph H. White Family Professor of Engineering and Professor of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering
Nima Rahbar is the Ralph H. White Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Professor of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering. Nima is interested in the bioinspired design of materials and structures and studies the fundamental principles that control the behavior of materials in engineering and biology at multiple scales. His research group, the Bioinspired Materials Design Lab, studies how lessons from natural biological materials such as nacre, dentin, and bone can lead to the design of high-performance materials and structures. Some of the group’s current research is focused on the design of novel self-healing structural, and record-holding carbon-negative construction materials. Nima received a BS in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology and a PhD in Civil Engineering from Princeton University. More about Nima
Grace Wang, President, WPI
A materials scientist and highly accomplished and collaborative leader in higher education, government, and industry, Grace Wang, PhD, began her term as the 17th president of WPI in April of 2023. She is also a professor in the department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at WPI.
Grace comes to WPI from The Ohio State University (OSU) where she served as executive vice president for research, innovation, and knowledge, and as a professor in Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to her term at OSU, she served in a variety of leadership roles at the State University of New York (SUNY). Before SUNY, Grace was the deputy assistant director for engineering, and later acting assistant director for engineering, at the National Science Foundation (NSF). She began her career at IBM/Hitachi Global Storage Technologies where she focused on research and development of thin-film magnetic recording media and carbon overcoat for data storage. She holds seven U.S. patents.
In 2022, Grace was appointed by the White House to serve on the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee. She is a council member of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is a member of the Board of Governors for the New York Academy of Sciences. She also serves on the Board of Massachusetts High Technology Council (MHTC).
Grace earned a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. More about Grace