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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.
Professor Albert Simeoni, head of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, was interviewed about his being awarded $519,893 from the National Institute of Justice to evaluate the reliability of burn pattern indicators used by investigators to determine the starting point of wildfires.
A story on WPI’s move to no longer consider SAT or ACT scores in its admission process was included in The Telegram & Gazette. The change to fully “test-blind” admissions will begin with the Fall 2021 application cycle and supports WPI’s mission of expanding access to a high-quality STEM education to all students.
WBZ-CBS Boston reported on WPI’s move to no longer consider SAT or ACT scores in its admission process. The change to fully “test-blind” admissions will begin with the Fall 2021 application cycle and supports WPI’s mission of expanding access to a high-quality STEM education to all students. WBZ quoted President Leshin in its report appearing on the station’s website. “I’m proud that WPI is one of the very first STEM universities to fully eliminate the test score barrier,” Leshin said. “WPI’s immersive project-based approach to STEM education engages students in solving real problems around the world, and our most successful students are those with drive, curiosity, and passion—factors that no standardized test can measure. We know that a WPI education can change a person’s lifelong career trajectory, and is a highly effective engine of social mobility.
The Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed Andrew B. Palumbo, assistant vice president for enrollment management and dean of admissions and financial aid, for an article on WPI’s move to no longer consider SAT or ACT scores in its admission process.
MassLive featured WPI’s BattleBots team in their article. WPI’s Ribbot robot is a 250-pound, frog-like battle bot that can travel up to 20 mph. The team, consisting of nine members, was the underdog, with MIT’s Uppercut robot the favorite as the school was seeded fourth. (WPI ended up winning).
Mike Gennert, professor of robotics engineering, offered his thoughts on the impact of NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars. “Perseverance picked its own landing spot as it got near the surface,” said Gennert, “so it was able to avoid rocks and other obstacles as it landed.” In the TV segment, Gennert added that it has “much more autonomous ability” than other rovers.
Mike Gennert, professor of robotics engineering; Carlo Pinciroli, assistant professor of robotics engineering; and Ashay Aswale, a PhD student in robotics engineering, were featured in a TV segment describing their participation in the NASA-sponsored Space Robotics Challenge. About a dozen undergraduate and graduate students have made measurable contributions in the competition.
President Laurie Leshin was interviewed by NECN about the successful landing of NASA’s Perseverance Rover on Mars. As a former NASA administrator, Leshin discussed the importance of this mission for the future of space exploration.
Carlo Pinciroli, assistant professor of robotics engineering, discussed how WPI’s Team Capricorn advanced to the finals of the NASA-sponsored Space Robotics Challenge. The WPI team is seeking to program virtual robots to locate and extract valuable resources from the Moon. “This has a direct financial and economic interest because there are lots of resources on the moon that are important to access,” he said.
Andrew Palumbo, assistant vice president for Enrollment Management & Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid, appeared in a story in about the impact of test-optional admissions processes on creating a more diverse campus. In the story, Palumbo noted that WPI has stopped awarding financial aid based on student test scores and has withdrawn from the National Merit Scholarship program. “We redirected those dollars to go back to need-based aid,” Palumbo said. (Note: Story also appeared in PBS NewsHour.)
David Spanagel, associate professor of humanities & arts, was quoted in the Science News article, “Marie Tharp’s groundbreaking maps brought the seafloor to the world.” “That’s why her map is so powerful,” Spanagel told the publication. “It allows people to see the bottom of the ocean as if it were a piece of land, and then reason about it. That’s a transformative thing that she’s able to accomplish.”
Ahmet Can Sabuncu, assistant teaching professor, Mechanical Engineering; and students Jonathan Han and Natalia Han were featured in this article. This discusses Toys with Wings, an emerging learning and teaching experience in a junior-level Mechanical Engineering course at WPI where students develop an entrepreneurial mindset by using the Vygotsky Cycle – a learning theory that uses social interaction to strengthen comprehension -- to complement the engineering design process.
Nearly 80 media outlets, reported on research projects led by Michael Timko, associate professor of chemical engineering; Aaron Deskins, associate professor of chemical engineering; and Nikolaos Kazantzis, professor of chemical engineering, that explore finding applications for nitrogen-rich waste products and converting marine plastics into ship fuel.
NBC News cited tests conducted in 2013 by Ali Rangwala, professor of Fire Protection Engineering, that led to passage last week of the Portable Fuel Container Safety Act of 2020, which establishes performance standards to protect against portable fuel container explosions. The piece showed that under certain conditions — including a very low volume of gasoline left inside — gas container explosions are possible.
·A thought leadership piece about how metal-based catalysts can boost biofuel yields by Mike Timko, associate professor of chemical engineering, was published in Biofuels Digest.
In the article, “WPI Awarded $3M for Graduate Data Program” the Worcester Business Journal reported on WPI using a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a unique graduate curriculum to train the next generation of scientists who can apply chemical sciences along with data analytics, mathematics, and computing power to reduce energy usage, waste, and pollution. Elke Rundensteiner, professor of computer science, founding director of the Data Science program, and principal investigator on the grant, is collaborating with Michael Timko and Aaron Deskins, associate professors of chemical engineering, and Randy Paffenroth, associate professor of mathematical and data sciences, among others.
President Leshin was quoted in the WGBH report, “As Students Return, New England Colleges Are Seen As Models Of Testing And COVID Control.” “Here in Massachusetts, I think we’re actually lighting the way on how to live and learn in the age of COVID,” Leshin told the station. “I really sincerely hope that other parts of the country look to our successful model and set up a way that they can do the same because we’ve shown that it’s possible to stay open and keep operating with relatively low case numbers.”
The Worcester Business Journal noted that the WPI alumnus-founded nonprofit makerspace and incubator located in downtown Worcester is seeking new board members
President Leshin was quoted in The Boston Globe article, “Regular testing across the whole campus community is really essential to success,” Leshin told The Globe, which also noted her role in leading the state’s task force on college reopening. “The testing was really critical…It’s not a secret formula.”
