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President Grace J. Wang was named to the annual list which was featured in The Boston Globe Magazine as part of its Women & Power issue. The list was created by The Women’s Edge, a nonprofit that supports female business leaders, and celebrates the state’s leading companies and nonprofit organizations led by women. The group examined 2023 revenue or operating budget as well as other variables and ranked organizations according to its own formula.
The Worcester Business Journal reported on Mimi Sheller, PhD, head of the department of sociology at Drexel University and a distinguished and internationally recognized scholar and educational leader, joining WPI in July as the inaugural dean of The Global School.
WPI is noted throughout the article, “Worcester’s colleges have fostered a startup ecosystem to help students become business owners.” The decision by the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute to move to WPI reflects the university’s “world-renowned video game development programs,” the article stated. It also noted how the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce partners with “WPI’s Venture Forum and the business incubator and coworking space WorcLab to run an annual program known as StartUp Worcester to help young entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground.”
Travel Tourism News interviewed Professor Fabio Carrera, director of WPI’s Venice Project Center, for the article, “How Venice is managing Europe’s worst tourism crisis.” “It is this focus on the livability of a city that Venetian data scientist Fabio Carrera believes is the key to Venice’s future. Because if a city cannot retain its own populace, no amount of tourist tax will be able to avert its inevitable decline and death,” the article stated. “As such, Carrera has dedicated 30 years of his academic life working on the Venice Project Centre, dividing his time between Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the prestigious Santa Fe Institute and Venice. During that time, he has supervised over 250 projects examining the city’s challenges: mapping every bridge, bell tower, well and water bus.”
The Telegram & Gazette covered WPI’s Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony for the School of Arts & Sciences and the Foisie Business School, “Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Lt. Gov. Polito honor WPI grads via video during commencement ceremony Thursday.” Congratulatory messages from Tyson and Polito were delivered via video. President Leshin, meanwhile, told students during the ceremony how impressed she was by their endurance. “We have come through a once-in-a-century event together, this global pandemic. We will be forever bonded not only because of what we came through together, but how we came through it,” she said. “It’s sort of like we completed the largest and most complex IQP ever, and I know that when I reflect back on this unprecedented time in our lives I will always think of you, the great class of 2021 and what you all did individually and collectively to keep WPI safe and to make it to today."
President Laurie Leshin was named to The Worcester Business Journal’s “2021 Power 50.” “Worcester Polytechnic Institute tends to nearly always be at the center when people talk about where Worcester colleges shine: drawing more students, spurring startups, and a forward-thinking mentality toward equal opportunities,” the article stated. “Laurie Leshin, WPI’s president since 2014 and its first female leader, has led this change.”
The Rev. Dr. Debora Jackson, dean of the Foisie Business School, were named to The Worcester Business Journal’s “2021 Power 50.” Jackson, “already has engaged with several organizations to strengthen WPI’s ties to the community, including Worcester Interfaith, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, Diverse Professionals Roundtable, Black Families Together, Yes We Care, the Worcester Pipeline Collaborative, and the Black Excellence Academy,” the Journal wrote.
Boston 25 News reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants. (7:36:31 mark)
MassLive reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants.
Spectrum News 1 reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants.
WBZ reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants. Plays at time mark 19:07:26.
Boston Herald reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants.
Worcester Business Journal reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants.
The New York Times article highlights some of Prof. Greg Fischer’s work. “Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are developing ways for machines to carefully guide surgeons’ hands as they perform particular tasks.”
Boston Globe columnist Thomas Farragher wrote a column about WPI robotics engineering professor Marko Popovic and undergraduates Mia Buccowich ’22, Andy Strauss ’23 and Brian Fay ’22 helping to develop a partial hand prosthetic for University of Houston student Payton Heiberger. “Working with them in the lab and coordinating with students of my own age has been amazing,” Heiberger said of her experience working with the WPI team.
TechXplore featured research by Erin Solovey, associate professor computer science, and a team from Drexel University that investigated the impact and importance of trust in interactions between humans and Embodied virtual agents (EVAs). These graphically represented 3D virtual characters that display human-like behavior, could have valuable applications in a variety of settings including helping people practice their language skills or could serve as companions for the elderly and people with psychological or behavioral disorders.
Sarah Strauss, professor of integrative and global studies, and Jeanine Dudle, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, discuss the university’s new graduate program in Community Climate Adaptation. “We wanted to use our existing infrastructure and extend this at the master’s level to create an interdisciplinary program with a specific goal of helping communities adapt to the impacts of climate change,” Strauss said.
Assistant Professor, Kenny Ching, Foisie Business School, did a radio interview with Money FM 89.3 Singapore, on the explosive growth of e-Sports, and the role Singapore can play.
Numerous media outlets reported on the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDigi), the award-winning center for academic cooperation, entrepreneurship, and economic development across the Massachusetts video games ecosystem, moving to WPI this summer.
In its College Town section, The Telegram & Gazette noted the roles of WPI robotics engineering professor Marko Popovic and undergraduates Mia Buccowich ’22, Andy Strauss ’23 and Brian Fay ’22 in helping to develop a partial hand prosthetic for University of Houston student Payton Heiberger.
WBZ-CBS Boston interviewed President Leshin for its report. “A total Wright brothers moment on the red planet” is how she referred to recent events involving the NASA Mars helicopter Ingenuity, a project to demonstrate that controlled flight, like an airplane or a helicopter, is feasible on Mars. “The technology that we invent to do things like fly a helicopter on Mars will have direct impact to improve life on earth."
